Transcript: Hong Kong insights and opportunities
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Dan Tebbutt ‒ Senior Trade Commissioner Hong Kong and Macau
Dan commenced as Austrade Senior Trade Commissioner and Deputy Consul-General (Commercial) for Hong Kong and Macau in January 2013. He speaks fluent Russian, as well as some Spanish and French.
From 2007 to 2013, he served as Austrade’s Senior Trade Commissioner in Moscow, covering Russia and eight other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Managing offices in Moscow and Vladivostok, Dan led the Austrade CIS team during a time when bilateral trade between Australia and Russia increased four-fold.
Transcript
>>Dan Tebbutt: Hong Kong is very much part of the Asian Century growth story. Hong Kong is Asia’s global financial services hub and the Hong Kong legal system is one of the most advanced in the world; it offers transparency and predictability and it is the preferred jurisdiction for many people doing international business in the region, particularly in and out of China.
For Australian companies, Hong Kong particularly presents opportunities in the Asian Century in areas such as the consumer products market, including food and beverage products, but also non-food and beverage products such as jewellery, cosmetics and skin care, and also in areas such as services and infrastructure.
Some of the challenges in the food and beverage sector in Hong Kong relate to the openness and competitiveness of the environment. Hong Kong has been ranked the most open economy in the world for the 19th year in succession which really underlines the fact that all suppliers from all over the world can compete on an even footing in Hong Kong, so Australian products need to be price competitive and they need to be competitive on quality and reliability. So Hong Kong is already a very important market to Australian companies and we need to work on the relationships and ensuring that our products remain innovative and relevant to the market over time.
Hong Kong is the number one export market for seafood and for fruit products from Australia, which may surprise many people given that Hong Kong is not a very big city in its own right. And Australia is also the number one supplier into the Hong Kong Market of chilled beef; we are the number two supplier of wine and premium seafood products, and the number three supplier of dairy. So Australia is very well established in Hong Kong and there’s... and Hong Kong is also a very important market to Australian exporters.
What Austrade is doing to help Australian exporters in the food and beverage sector, we are planning an intensive customer outreach program and this will be focused particularly on some new opportunities relating to the new cruise ship terminal that’s opening in Hong Kong, also to new players in the market such as online retailers and people selling through the coffee shop chain. So we’re very much focused on identifying opportunities for Australian exporters and delivering those through the Austrade network.
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