Page 4488 - Week 10 - Thursday, 23 September 2010

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enthusiasm of the day with the members of a growing club that is making a great contribution to Calwell and the nearby suburbs in Tuggeranong and its community.

Educational trade mission to China

MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (4.36): I rise briefly to report on my recent educational trade mission to China. Members will be aware that Canberra is a knowledge city. We are home to world-class public institutions, public education institutions and private training firms.

Naturally, our city’s relationship with China is built on education. Foreign students bring in around $200 million a year to our economy. Their presence supports the jobs of thousands of Canberrans and adds greatly to the cultural life of our city. China is the major source of overseas students for the ACT. This is a relationship that we want to strengthen and that was, of course, the point of the trade mission.

Whilst in China, I attended a number of events, including a trade dinner and a University of Canberra alumni event. As an aside, I also had the opportunity to witness town planning Shanghai style, visiting a handmade scale model of Shanghai that, I would have to say, had the floor space equivalent to an aircraft hangar. I think the scale model of their city was bigger than some Australian towns. It would be fair to say that the urban density within the city of Shanghai, with the function of a rapidly globalising giant economy, trying to meet its global obligations on greenhouse emissions, is something to behold.

Whilst in China, it was also my great pleasure to meet with a number of people vital to our ongoing trade relationship, including the deputy director-general of the Shanghai education commission, Mr Linjun Xiu, the China executive leadership academy program, the deputy director-general of the Shanghai sport bureau, Mr Chen Yiping, and Mr Tom Conner, the Consul General in Shanghai.

The highlight of the mission was undoubtedly the educational export dinner held at the Australian pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. The ACT government is a silver partner of the Australian pavilion. The trade mission was supported by great Canberra institutions with a range of great initiatives.

At that dinner, I was privileged to be able to announce a number of these. The Australian National University School of Engineering and Computer Science in conjunction with National ITC Australia have established a program to bring six Chinese scholars to Canberra between November 2011 and February 2012. The ANU College of Business and Economics has also developed a scholarship for the ANU/Tshinghua master of management program, which will enable Chinese students to travel to Australia for the program between November next year and February 2012. UC has established a chapter of its alumni specifically for the East China University of Science and Technology MBA graduates. This marks the 10-year anniversary of the signing of a new long-term agreement with ECUST and the University of Canberra.


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