Business people “Down Under” want to tell the world that they represent more than Rugby players, incredible surf, and Nicole Kidman.
This was the focus of talks presented by several business gurus at the South Pacific International Business Conference (SPIBC), organized by the Business Management Club and the School of Business and Management held in Alumni Hall from Feb. 26th through the 28th. The conference also focused on opportunities in New Zealand and other small countries in the Pacific.
Australia: Creating a diverse and dynamic economy that performs well
Dr. Maxwell Briggs, Faculty of Business at Queensland University of Technology, and Honorable Robert Charles of the Australian Consulate General of Chicago discussed the growing innovation and marketability of Australian industries.
Briggs said that Australia needed to find the key industries that created the greatest amount of growth individually for Australia to grow in the world market.
Then, according to Charles, they realized that they where creating a major problem, closing themselves off from the rest of the world.
Australia did this, according to Charles, by “imposing a 60 percent tariff on imported goods.” Charles explained that this created external problems despite Australian labor unions greatly increasing wages due to the tariffs. Charles said, “This may have been good for the employees and Australian industries, but it hurt the external markets.”
Starting in 1973 the government started to decrease the tariffs and today the tariffs are between five and fifteen percent. Charles added, “The minimum wage is still around $14 (in Australian Dollars), which is a livable wage.”
New Zealand: The rail industry that could
Edward A Burkhardt, President and CEO of Rail World, Inc., discussed the difficulties of the rail industry, where it’s hard to “make ends meet, economically.”
His involvement with a Wisconsin rail group that bought into the industry was his connection to the privatization of the rail system in New Zealand. He also gave a brief summary of where the general economy of New Zealand is strong and where it has opportunity to grow.
The strengths included agriculture, livestock, and farming, as Burkhardt said, “there is something like 50 million sheep used for the use of the wool industry, ? and 4 million people.”
The opportunities are mainly in tourism, which he says is helped by films that promote New Zealand, like Lord of the Rings, which expose the country to the world.