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LIVE BLOG: Australia in China's Century conference

We'll be uploading videos, tweeting and providing updates of the conference throughout the day.
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By Harrison Polites | Oliver Georges | Vivienne Mah | Kai Wong · 30 May 2014
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Harrison Polites | Oliver Georges | Vivienne Mah | Kai Wong
By Harrison Polites | Oliver Georges | Vivienne Mah | Kai Wong ·
30 May 2014
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That's all folks. Tune into The Australian over the weekend for more coverage of the event. Also keep an eye on China Spectator next week for some analysis on what was said today. 

4.50pm

And that's it for the conference. The Australia's foreign editor Greg Sheridan is closing off the event. 

He says he is going to be brief and offers five reflections:

1. Good China policy requires good policy with the rest of Asia. 

2. Businessmen should not ask the government to moderate its multinational strategy.   

3. The idea that we have to 'choose friends' in the Pacific is meaningless. Regard our strategic identify as fixed. Our alliance with the US isn't going away any time soon as it's a great asset to Australia. 

4. Businesses must not blame all failed endeavours in China as a direct outcome of our Australia-China relationship.

5. We should put more effort into being culturally aware of China. But the same goes for the rest of Asia. 

4.30pm

Oh, and Julie Bishop just put up the transcript from her talk this morning. 

4.20pm

We're up to our last panel session for the day. 

Also another video is up. Mike Komesaroff from Urandline Investments discusses iron ore.  

4:10pm

Questions from the floor for Andrew Forrest. 

4pm

Couple of interesting points from Forrest: 

We mentioned this point in a news story earlier this week.

3.50pm

3.40pm

Michael Thawley debunks his four top myths about China's geo-political future: 

1. The US' power and influence is not declining.

2. The US isn't seeking a military confrontation with China. 

3. The rise of China won't desolate Japan.

4. Australia's approach to trade with China will not decide its future. This will mostly be driven by internal dynamics.  

He adds that Australia should equally care about its China's neighbours (South Korea, Japan) and take a regional approach to improving relations. 

3.30pm

And we're back for the last part of this conference. Still to come: another couple of panels that include Fortescue's Andrew Forrest, Crown's Todd Nisbet, Austrade's Laurie Smith and KPMG's Peter Fung. 

3.05pm

And the panel ends with these points from the speakers. 

And another point from the discussion, written up by Robb Stewart from the Wall Street Journal. 

"Australia's massive pension-fund industry will need to push into Asia for investments, says Heather Ridout, chairwoman of pension-fund firm Australian Super. Ms. Ridout, who is also a Reserve Bank of Australia board member, says pensions are a source of patient, long-term capital. However, Australian funds face competition and a vast amount of money "sloshing around" for funds globally, she tells the Australia in China's Century Conference."

2.50pm

A question that ended up as a statement. So, are we overthinking this? 

More video: MMG's Andrew Michelmore on the future of Australia's business in China

2.40pm

The panel session is still underway, but here's something to break it up: a video interview with ANZ China's Charles Li. 

We should also give a shout out to @WebPresenseInChina, who has been really active on the #OzChinaCentury hashtag, offering some interesting insights. 

2:20pm

2pm

Some interesting points from the COO of Seven Group Holdings Ryan Stokes.

And an astute observation from Twitter user Kate Richie.

1:50pm

And we're back. 


Here's a highlights video of Warwick Smith's talk that was put together over the break. 

And another of Peter Cai's chat with Wall Street Journal China editor Xin Lin. 

Also, The Australian filed this on SEEK's efforts in China.

"SEEK chief executive Andrew Bassat says its Chinese online-job-market business, Zhaopin, has not experienced any impact from the slowdown of the Chinese economy in recent months.

“The business has been really strong,’’ Mr Bassat told the Australia in China’s Century conference in Melbourne today.

“Whatever the economy over recent years, every year we improve in our service. The metrics are growing rapidly ... Broadly our numbers have been growing pretty strongly in terms of revenue and profit.’’

12:50pm

12:15pm

Another interesting point about Australia's Visa program from Rowan Craigie, chief executive of Crown Resorts.

Some more interesting points:

Globally, there were 10 million Chinese tourists in 2000. That number has increased to around 100 million in 2013. It's expected that figure will double to 200 million by 2020. 

Pulling Australia into those stats, 100,000 visited the country in 2000, 700,000 visited last year, and 1.4 million are projected to visit by 2020. 

Craigie adds that the government needs to look at how it processes visas and refine its airport arrival experience. Chinese tourists will compare us to the US, Hong Kong and Singapore when deciding whether they will visit the country.

We're breaking for lunch now, more updates shortly.

12:00pm

Fascinating conversation about social media in China.


Oh and our first video is up. Here's a wrap of Julie Bishop's speech from earlier this morning. 

11.45am 

11.30am 

Stats, stats and more stats from Warwick Smith. 

Meanwhile, it's great to see some Twitter users join in the conversation on the #OzChinaCentury hashtag. 

We'll have some videos up soon. In the meantime, The Australian's Barry Fitzgerald has filed a story from the conference about China's crackdown on air pollution.

"CHINA’S crackdown on air pollution has emerged as one of the key factors in the slide in iron ore prices to 20-month lows, the Australia in China’s Century conference was told today.

Andrew Michelmore, the chief executive of the Chinese state-controlled but Australian-managed miner MMG, told the conference that Beijing was acutely aware of the air pollution problems and that as locals noted, it was a problem shared by peasants and government officials."

11.20am

11.10am

Morning tea time. 

Also, here is an article from our partners at the WSJ on Seek's plans for Asia. 

10.45am

Another interesting factoid: 

Remember, you can join in the conversation on the #OzChinaCentury hashtag on Twitter. Morning Tea, we're taking a brief break now. Be back soon. 

10.25am

The Q&A continues. 

ANZ China's Li wrote a piece on his talk for The Australian earlier this week. Read it here.

"THE idea of Australians packing Chinese currency in their wallets, instead of US dollars, when travelling overseas is probably a step too far for the foreseeable future.

But there is little doubt the renminbi has potential to become one of the world’s big three currencies by 2020. There is also great potential for China and Australia to boost financial co-operation by tapping the opportunities from China’s financial reforms and harnessing China’s capital outflow."

10.10am 

9.55am

ANZ China's chief executive, Dr Charles Li takes the stage with some bad news... 

Also, it seems we are selling quite a variety of books here too... 

9.40am

An update on the agenda. As with all conferences, we're running a touch late, so add around 5 to 10 minutes on these times.  

9.35am - Dr Charles Li, chief executive of ANZ China

10.00am- Panel discussion on how China managed down its economy and the outcomes of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. With Andrew Browne, former WSJ China bureau chief and current China World columnist, John Lee, adjunct professor at the University of Sydney, Jason Chang, president of the Victorian chapter of the Australia China Business Council, and Dr Charles Li, chief executive of ANZ China

11:00am - The Hon Warwick Smith AM, chairman, Australia China Council and Global Trustee & Chairman, Asia Society Australia

11:25am - Panel discussion on doing business in China and how to build online. With Rowan Callick, Asia Pacific Editor of The Australian, Andrew Bassat, chief executive and co-founder of Seek and The Hon Warwick Smith AM.

12:10pm - Live link to Beijing with Xin Li, managing editor of Chinese online edition of The Wall Street Journal and Peter Cai, editor of China Spectator.

12:15pm - Rowen Craigie, chief executive of Crown Resorts and Damon Kitney, Victorian business editor, The Australian.

9.30am

MMG's Andrew Michelmore takes the stage. 

Also, good to see some tweets from the crowd. Join in on the #OzChinaCentury hashtag.

9.05 am 

An interesting statistic:

8.50am

Julie Bishop takes the stage. Here are some tweets of her speech:  

Read The Australian's article ahead of Bishop's keynote this morning here. 

"FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop will tell The Australian’s “Australia in China’s Century” conference today the event’s title cannot be fully assumed: it is still unclear whether this will indeed be China’s century or not.

“China is the fastest rising power of our time … we will be working through the implications of China’s rise for at least a generation.”

8:40am 

Julian Clarke says The Australian is proud to cover Australia-China relations. Adds that the relationship will serve as a pivotal point in Australia's history. 

Ahead of the video presentation with Crown's James Packer later this morning, Damon Kitney filed this story.

"JAMES Packer is open to doing business deals in China with fellow billionaire and close friend Kerry Stokes after the pair recent­ly accompanied Tony Abbott­ on a landmark trade ­mission to the world’s fastest-growing economy.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Australian ahead of the Australia in China’s Century Conference in Melbourne today, Mr Packer also revealed that he would like to involve his Asian gaming partner Lawrence Ho in any expansion by his RatPac Entertainment business into China."

Welcome to the Australia in China's Century live blog. We’ll be uploading videos, curating tweets and providing insight on the event through out the day. 

Follow the event along on Twitter with the #OzChinaCentury hashtag. 

On the agenda this morning: 

8.30 am - News Corp CEO Julian Clarke will open the conference. 

8.35 am - Foreign minister Julie Bishop will deliver the keynote address.

8.55 am - A video interview between Crown CEO James Packer and The Australian’s Victorian business editor Damon Kitney

9.05 am - Andrew Michelmore, an Australian running Chinese-owned mining company MMG Ltd offers his insights on doing business in Australia. 

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Harrison Polites | Oliver Georges | Vivienne Mah | Kai Wong
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