By CASEY NEILL
A GREATER Dandenong business delegation will build stepping stones to open opportunities in China.
City of Greater Dandenong business group manager Paul Kearsley will spearhead the trip to China from 26 October to 1 November.
Mayor Jim Memeti, three South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) members and Committee for Dandenong chairman Gary Castricum will travel alongside him to the three-day Xuzhou Trade and Investment Fair.
“We really wanted to focus it more on business leaders rather than businesses, just to get the business leaders within our community sharing the same view,” he said.
“The more people we can get to spread the message into the business community the better.
“There is a lot on offer but it’s quite difficult for businesses to pinpoint exactly what they might get out of it.
“They were very receptive, but I think the challenge is how. How do they get from running a 20-person business in Dandenong South to possibly exporting to China?
“The concept and the idea is exciting.
“What I’m keen to do is put the stepping stones of the how together.”
Mr Kearsley said Xuzhou was home to 10.5 million people.
“And that’s a small city. You only need to get one contract and you’re off,” he said.
“We can’t compete on the intensive labour stuff, because of different pay rates.
“But we can get in with high-end value-add manufacturing.”
He said food was another opportunity.
“The middle class over there are a little bit untrusting of some of the home products that are made because of issues of contamination in the past,” he said.
In addition to the business fair, Mr Kearsley has arranged to meet with organisations and businesses in Xuzhou and Nanjing.
The council has maintained a sister city relationship with Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province for 17 years.
Mr Kearsley is hoping to build on it and expand to Nanjing, which is also in Jiangsu – Victoria’s sister state.
“The chamber of commerce in Nanjing has 22,500 businesses. If we can get a couple of those… ” he said.
The delegation will also visit the Austrade and the Victorian Government Business Office in Shanghai “to get a better understanding of how to do business and what services they offer”.
“So that when our business has got to go over there we’ve got names and contacts,” Mr Kearsley said.
He is also hoping for a meeting with the Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission to start the process toward a memorandum of understanding.
The commission signed one with City of Greater Geelong’s Enterprise Geelong in July.
“It’s about the sharing of information, sharing of investment opportunities, doing some joint research on which businesses could possibly do business in either place,” Mr Kearsley said.
“It’s really formalising a relationship.
“The idea is to examine whether or not an agreement would also be beneficial to us.
“I think it would.”
Mr Kearsley said two delegations from China would visit Greater Dandenong in coming weeks.
“They come out to see what they’ve been reading about,” he said.
“Investors are looking for opportunities in Australia.
“A lot of the larger Chinese developers in a property sense are now looking at Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne as opportunities to build.
“When I say build, it’s the big stuff – it’s the CBD, 50-storey stuff.
“When they come here, a lot of the other developers of a smaller scale will also follow them in.”
He visited the City of Paramatta in New South Wales earlier this year.
“One of the things we wanted to talk to them about was the level of Chinese investment they’re getting for apartment buildings,” he said.
“They’re certainly getting some significant interest from that side of things.
“Paramatta are probably about 10 years ahead of where we are at the moment in terms of development opportunities.
“Apartments are something we need to get more of into Dandenong, get more people living in the centre.”
Mr Kearsley said current conversations were about seeing what was possible in the future.
“And they’re long-term – these things will take time to get going, but you’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.
