welcome to the latest in the series of videos with our ambassadors around the
world today we are speaking to Mr Paul Tighe who is Australia's
Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macau
welcome Paul
thanks John good to see you again and be with you today
Paul to start with Hong Kong has a relatively
small population but it features quite large in Australia's international relations why
is that
i think it's because we've got very long established and really close links there's
a
a lot of uh... contact of people to people level between Hong Kong and Australia has
been for many years in particular
since uh... since the mid-nineteen ninety's
so there's a a very strong Hong Kong community in Australia
a very strong Australian community in Hong Kong
trade relationship as you mentioned is is significant it's a around about eight
billion dollars uh... in bilateral trade each year
and for a market of only seven million people that's pretty substantial
what's even more important between Australia and Hong Kong is the
investment relationship
which in two way terms is uh... up around about seventy billion dollars it's quite
large
Paul can you tell us more about the large Australian presence in Hong Kong
yeah reflecting uh... the uh... size of the investment relationship there is a
very strong Australian presence up there
uh... a lot of people in professional services all of the big four Australian
banks are represented
in Hong Kong
uh... lot of people in professions like architecture, engineering
accountancy, legal firms
very very strong presence uh... you find Australians in
all walks of life in Hong Kong quite interesting actually
uh... my favorite examples was the horse racing industry
uh... and if anybody's been to Hong Kong will know how iconic the uh... happy
valley race track is
when you go out there you'll find that theres Australian horses, Australian
jockeys
Australian trainers, Australian stewards, there is a lot of Australian technology
so it's uh... it's a really nice sort of symbiotic relationship
uh... and it reflects i think the fact to that
Australia has a reputation in Hong Kong of
uh... providing very high quality products
high end uh... food and wine, beverages all those sorts of things
it's a it's a relationship that i think uh...
reflects very well on Australia and its capacity for meeting the demands of uh...
asian countries
Paul is it correct that the Consul General in Hong Kong
is Australias second largest polling station for federal elections
yeah that's right it it's it's a bit hard to get a an exact figure on the
size of the Australian community but the the one thing we do know or two things we
do know is that
we are the second-largest passport issuing office anywhere in the world the
only place that issues more passports
than we do at the consulate in Hong Kong is the High Commission in London
uh... similarly uh... when there's a federal election of course Australians overseas
can vote through our consulate, our embassies, our high commissions
and we know that the number of votes received through the Australian
consulate in Hong Kong is the second largest of any individual polling booth
anywhere in the Australian electoral system including in
Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra or anywhere else the only place that gets more
than Hong Kong is a High Commission in London
so we know there's a very big community there again reflecting the
the depth in the strength of our trade and investment relationship with Hong Kong
and what about Hong Kong's involvment in Australia
ah again very significant I mentioned before the substantial investment relationship Hong Kongs about the fifth sixth seventh depending on when you
measuring it
uh... source of foreign investment coming into Australia
investments uh... throughout a number of sectors but particularly strong in areas
like utilities
uh... infrastructure
uh... again some iconic things like the the railway system part of it in Melbourne
electricity distribution in South Australia and Victoria
uh... some of the port facilities in Sydney
so ah again of very um... very positive relationship
uh... and i think it's it's growing uh... one of the one of the great things
about Hong Kong of course
is it has a very sophisticated
and very credible international financial market uh... Australia uses
that as a source of capital
uh... for investment into Australia but also increasingly used by Chinese
companies seeking access into the international markets
we estimate that something like about three thousand Chinese corporates
represented
in Hong Kong now including with listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange
they do that because they get a great deal of comfort out of
operating through
uh... the credible and sophisticated uh... Hong Kong markets which of course
are backed up
by having the the rule of law and in Hong Kongs case its common law
uh... which is something which is familiar to most Australian investor's
and indeed other Western investors
so it really cements Hong Kong's role
as a an important international financial centre
and again that's that's important for a Australias relationship
with not only Hong Kong
but also with the other north Asian economies and China in particular
Paul we've spoken about the strong personal and business connections between Australia
and Hong Kong
what about ties at official level
uh at the official that will uh... there's very strong relationship again
um... lots of bilateral visits between
ministers in the Hong Kong administration and uh... either ministers
and senior officials in Australia
for example the uh... deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer of Australia has
been to Hong Kong
twice in the last uh... six months or so he was there most recently
in January for the Asian Financial Forum which Hong Kong
uh... hosts every year
one of the important outcomes of his visit was the um... launching
of a bilateral dialogue between Hong Kong and Australia
on trade denominated in the Chinese currency the renminbi
and uh... in fact just recently we've had uh... the visit of the Prime Minister to
China
at which it was announced that they would now be direct convertibility
direct trade
between the Australian dollar and uh... and the Chinese renminbi
so the relationship we've got with Hong Kong and in particular its financial
centers which is been developed
by those uh... strong by government to government visits including by the Deputy
Prime Minister
uh... will take that relationship further and again Australian companies
are already heavily involved
in renminbi the uh... denominated trade
now Paul our Consul General in Hong Kong is also I understand accredited to Macau
what can you tell us about Australia's interests in Macau and our relations with Macau
Macau's a of course a smaller economy than Hong Kong but very significant for Australia particularly in the gaming sector where there is some substantial
Australian investments through the crown group
but also Australiasgot a good presence up there again in high end client quality sorts of
uh... products and services
uh... for example providing technology to support
uh... poker machines that are used extensively in the Macau gaming industry
but also very important in areas like food and beverages
uh... as i mentioned before Australias trade with Hong Kong and its mirrored
in Macau is very heavily focused
in things like premium seafood premium beef premium wines
so we've got a a great reputation up there of providing
uh... safe products which uh... i think stands us in good stead with both those
markets
Paul in relation to Hong Kong specifically
what three words would you use to encapsulate the relationship between Australia and
Hong Kong
uh... because i think the first word i'd choose would be symbiotic it's uh... it's
a relationship which is uh...
naturally reinforcing of itself and it echoes quite quite naturally in many
ways it's a long standing relationship and it's uh... it's a very warm and
positive relationship
uh... has been for a long time and i see that uh... continuing for quite awhile
into the future
thanks very much Paul thanks John
and that was Paul Tighe
Australias Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macau