Beyond economic gains, there are many valuable opportunities for building stronger relationships across the region, including through closer educational, cultural and people-to-people links. Our nation also has the strength that comes from a long history of engagement with countries in Asia. But in this Asian century we must enter a new phase of deeper and broader engagement.
Australia in the Asian century: white paper. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Australia. Attachment Size apo-nid ISBN :. Copyright :. Access Rights Type :. Post date :. Add to favourites. Working paper. Blog post. We want capital and ideas to flow more easily across borders for investment, innovation and jobs growth. New integration of regional markets is needed but we must aim higher and create new regional business relationships, new models and partnerships.
This means business pushing into the new spaces and operating across the borders we are lowering. Broader and deeper supply chains across the region, enabling small businesses as well as multinationals to take advantage of growing markets. We should devote a truly national effort to building more comprehensive relationships with our key partners across the region, including through our diplomatic networks.
Leisure and sport, work and holidays, learning and culture are all being refined and redefined in contact with neighbours we will know even better through this century. And through these kinds of personal connections, our public conversation will become more Asia-centred. Think about the media time given over to reporting the challenges of fiscal policy in Portugal or Greece or the US presidential elections.
Should less time really be devoted — as it is now — to reporting the economic trends of Indonesia, the debates around freer trade in Japan, the political transition in China? Our plan is for a myriad of stronger, deeper, broader cultural links with the nations of Asia at every level of society.
The new Asia dissolves simple strategic triangles; we seek our security in a region of dozens of strategic intersections. Regional militaries are modernising.
Economic growth will put more pressure on energy, water and food resources. At the same time, all countries in the region, particularly the major powers, have a deep interest in strategic stability.
So we need not be pessimistic — but just as we work to shape the economic future of our region, so too do we work to shape our security environment. We are supporting the stabilising presence of the United States, a strong Defence Force, building habits of trust and co-operation in our region and a rules-based regional order. Our goal is for Asia to be a region of sustainable security in which habits of co-operation are the norm. All schools will engage with at least one school in Asia to support the teaching of a priority Asian language, taking advantage of the National Broadband Network.
All students will have access to at least one priority Asian language: Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese. We will provide 12, Australia Awards to Asian nations over the next five years, to promote people-to-people links between Australia and the region.
We will make it easier for low-risk visitors to come to Australia and we will encourage more tourists from China and other Asian markets. We will expand work and holiday program agreements with countries in Asia over time, starting with an increase to 1, places in our Work and Holiday Visa program with Indonesia.
My aim is not only to have a plan to succeed in this century. My aim is that we succeed on our own terms. Right from the beginning, our nation has been different and we have tried to build a new kind of society and economy here. And free also of the deep economic injustices that so many of us, or our forebears, left behind in another country. No more. Thirty years ago, Australia was still a closed and isolated economy, pockets of engagement were the exception and the old model of economic and social protection was breaking.
Today, we no longer have to juggle our social democratic values and our Asian regional context — they come together as our two great national strengths. Today, opportunity for all, through education and work is also the best national plan for prosperity. We know Australia has changed and Asia has changed and we know this demands new changes of us today. Australia only wins if every Australian wins.
Australia is only strong if every Australian is strong. Australia is no exception. Could we feed a people on this driest of lands? Could we unite a nation on a continent without the pressures of revolution or war? Could we carry our weight in the world and fight for the freedom of our friends? Could we defend ourselves in our greatest hour of need? Could we rebuild after decades of Depression and War? Could we embrace change and find new sources of wealth in demanding new times?
Could we say Sorry? You see the answer in the nation around you: We got it done. Respected by our oldest friends in the world — welcomed by our newest friends in the region.
But history is calling to us again — today, history asks us another great question. Can Australia be a winner in this Asian Century of change and growth? Today, I launch the plan which answers this question. Quite the contrary.
While Australia was changing — Asia was changing too. By , it will have reached as far as central India. The world economy is coming our way. Above all, a new urban middle class. Deep in our Australian culture are the assumptions that equate low wages with Asian labour.
In the Asian Century, that changes. First, economic strength — through building a productive and resilient economy. This is the essential platform for the next stage of our economic strategy. Tax reforms to create the right incentives to invest in the new capital and research.
Second, strong minds — an education and skills plan to build capabilities. Where we open minds, not just markets, to our region. Our plan is to drive excellence, grow equity, get the most out of everyone. Our plan is for a new kind, not just a new level, of private sector engagement. Fourth, deep and broad relationships with the region at all levels.
Australian social and cultural life will gain greatly from enhanced people-to-people links. History tells us as economic weight shifts, so does strategic weight. So fifth, sustaining the security of our diverse region. Our past engagement is a strength in this crowded and complex environment. We have an ally in Washington — respect in Beijing — and more. An open door in Jakarta and Delhi, Tokyo and Seoul. Our plan is to stand strongly in our changing region as a mature and confident power.
These are our five long-term national directions. And with these long-term directions as our guide, I announce today the first policy steps. These strategies will be part of our National Plan for School Improvement. These are important, immediate steps for Government. They are the beginning for our long-term national plan. Free of privilege given at birth. Free of the snobbishness and obsequiousness that infects older nations.
We have always wanted to do it our way. We long saw Asia as a threat to all this — racially, militarily and economically. Back in the 80s we had to liberalise a closed economy to compete with the old Asia. Today we have to educate an open society to compete in the new Asia.
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