6 October to 14 October 2008
Beijing / Jinan / Shanghai / Hangzhou

Singapore Airlines touched down Beijing International Airport at 1130 p.m on the 6th Oct 2008. We have been travelling for the last 48hrs; headed straight for our luggage, EXIT to currency exchange. Australia dollar exchanging at 4.3.

At 7 a.m. on the 7th Oct, there was breaking news that “AUSTRALIA’S central bank will slash interest rates by one percentage point amid fears of a global slowdown sparked by the US-based financial crisis”.

Welcome to our selling South Australia in China!

AustCham in Beijing (pop 22mil) hosted our first seminar. Premier Mike Rann gave a very impressive speech highlighting South Australia coming as 4th in the Frazer Institute of Mining Survey out of a jurisdiction of 68 worldwide. China immediately knew where our delegation was from.

Education in South Australia became the top priority for our Chinese attendees, followed by Venture Capital Investment for the next “boom town”. It was easy to sell.

Beijing & Shanghai (pop 25mil) seminars and networking sessions went into overdrive. There were queries of cost of living (and at 7th Oct rate) with many admitting it was cheap.

The Jinan Planetary Session in the Province of Shandong our sister-state (pop 96 mil) introduced the Mining sectors to our mineral resources, business communities and our aeromagnetic survey invention; again scoring points from their School of Geology to send students to our Centre of Exploration, Adelaide University. Special thanks to our keynote speaker Jason Kuchel and everyone on the panel.

Food and Wine took centre stage as well. Many of the Chinese companies did their homework and when we met up again at dinnertime were able to tell “us” of South Australia’s pristine waters and fresh seafood. Amazing what a drop in OZ dollar can do overseas!

AND, I am glad we will be networking with our first return Shandong Delegation of 25 delegates on 27th Oct organised by DTED.

My impression is “China can and will buy from us if only the State of South Australia is willing to sell“. Let’s hope it happens.