Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 3/2/2008 Page: 12
THOUSANDS of Chinese immigrants converged on the Australian goldfields in the 1800s, hoping to make their fortune. Now a new breed of hopefuls are heading the other way Australian business professionals are going to China for a slice of the biggest economic explosion on the planet. China's economy grew by 11.4 per cent last year almost three times as fast as Australia's acclaimed "boom" and it is expected to continue charging upwards by almost 10 per cent this year.
An insatiable hunger for mineral resources means China is expected to overtake Japan as Australia's largest export market this year, worth more than $35 billion. Not just minerals are in demand: Australian expertise is commanding top dollars and adventurous professionals including engineers, lawyers, financial planners, retailers and hospitality specialists are answering the call.
Queensland entrepreneur Damien Weis is one of them. His family-owned business, Pulse Energy, based at Milton in Brisbane, has contracts worth nearly $3 billion to build and operate renewable energy plants in China. There will be 20 wind farms, three hydro-electric stations, four methane power plants and a string of bio-mass projects using material such as sugar cane to produce electricity.
"They need as much power generation as they can get from as many sources as they can," Mr Weis said. "we see unbelievable opportunities there and because of the scale, opportunities are now available to smaller companies that previously were only available to big companies." Australia's "foreign experts" as expats on working visas in China are known have joined Americans, Britons, Germans, French and others in selling their know-how to help develop Chinese businesses.
The expats get a front-row seat on the wild ride that is China's economic revolution. Last week, a group of Queensland professionals based in Shanghai toasted the new land of opportunity. Public relations manager Donna Campbell, Austrade officers Esther Sun, Julie-Anne Nichols and Karen Fowler, hotel manager John Roberts, and marketing professionals Jenny Soo and Maxine Howe, met for drinks at Shanghai's swanky Marriott Hotel, where Ms Campbell is communications director.
Austrade's senior trade commissioner in Shanghai, Christopher Wright, believes Australia's lucrative relationship with China could continue for at least another decade. "The scale of what's happening in China is overwhelming," he said. "I'm still very bullish when it comes to China because the program the Government has for investment is still being rolled out."
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