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BUSINESS CLUB AUSTRALIA EVENT

Remarks by the High Commissioner
Vancouver, 24 February 2010

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this Business Club Australia event. I would particularly like to thanks Minister Iain Black for his attendance and his generous words of support.

Over the past fortnight we have witnessed some wonderful acts of sporting prowess. Tonight, we can take our cue from the athletes and bring the spirit of the Games to our own collective efforts to compete for success in the global market place.

Of course, Vancouver is a natural hub for Australians and Canadians to come together to compete, cooperate and collaborate. Australia’s relationship with British Columbia goes back more than a century. The appointment of Canada’s first trade commissioner to Australia was driven in large part by the business community in Vancouver and British Columbia.

Over the past century, we have developed an extensive program of cooperation that spans the political, economic, cultural and scientific and technological. As trade dependent states, we have a shared interest in building the right conditions for trade and investment and technological exchange.

Despite the global economic downturn, Australia-Canada economic links have been strengthening. Two-way trade now tops $4 billion and investment flows in both directions have blossomed. There are now more than 4,000 companies engaged in two-way trade and more than 200 companies involved in two-way investment.

I would like to recognise the large contributions made to these links by two Australian companies that are sponsors of this evening’s event, Macquarie and Worley Parsons.

Australia and Canada are competitors in many markets and products, but we are also collaborators. Both of our countries have emerged from the recession in better shape than many other countries. So, if you look at responding to the challenges of energy security, food security, financial security, our two countries have the capacity to work together to build economies of scale to take up these new global opportunities.

These positive economic and commercial trends are running alongside the enduring political, cultural and human links that characterise the Australia-Canada story. Politically, we are both deployed in Afghanistan and we are both members of the G20, which was designated at last year’s Pittsburgh summit as the pre-eminent global economic steering group.

There are very few things that can demonstrate the depth of our cultural links than the scale of the Australian presence at the Vancouver Games. Not only do we have a team of athletes numbering more than 40 – the largest of any Australian team at a winter games – many Australians are also part of the team that has made these Games such a success, whether as volunteers or employees.

Earlier this month, I was honoured to co-host with the Four Host First Nations a performance by the Australian indigenous group the Black Arm Band with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the launch of the cultural Olympiad.

Of course Australians are very keen on sport and we have as a result developed world class expertise in staging sporting events. We are proud of that expertise – which has also been on show at the opening ceremony in Vancouver - and we look forward to having the opportunity to work with the organisers of the forthcoming Games in Sochi, London and Rio de Janeiro.

Thank you all once again for participating in this event.