Opening of the relocated and expanded Australian Consulate-General

His Excellency the Australian Ambassador to Brazil Mr Neil Mules; Consul General Great Britain – Mr Martin Raven; Consul General New Zealand – Mr William Wattie; Consul General Canada – Ms Paula Caldwell; Government officials of Sao Paulo; Australian citizens.

I’m delighted to be in Sao Paulo, the third largest city in the world.

And thank you so much for inviting me to open this Consulate-General, which has been relocated, expanded and improved –– very appropriate for a piece of Australia in Brazil.

The Consulate-General is expanding in another way –– as an example of the real growth in two-way trade and community relations we are experiencing in Latin America.

This place is also meaningful in terms of the long friendship Australia has enjoyed with Brazil –– we’ve had diplomatic relations for 63 years. In fact, when Australia established its first diplomatic mission in Brazil in 1945, it was the first of its kind in all of Latin America.

Brazil - Star Economy in the Region

Brazil’s economy is the star of the region and increasingly has developed in unison with the international markets expansion and an increasingly globalised economy.

Brazil is the “B” in BRIC, that much-used acronym to embrace the four great emerging economies of the world––Brazil, Russia, India and China.

However, if we look at the history of the term “BRIC” for a moment, it’s not difficult to see how well Brazil has done. It was first used in a 2003 report by global investment banking and securities firm, Goldman Sachs, which considered that by 2050 Brazil, Russia, India and China would be the wealthiest countries in the world.

I’m pleased to say that Australia has formidable trade relationships with all four!

It was in the mid-1990s that Australia’s commercial links with Brazil began to take off, notably in the sectors of mining and agribusiness.

Trade Relationship

Last year two-way trade between Australia and Brazil reached A$1.7 billion. Australian exports to Brazil totalled A$868 million, balanced by imports from Brazil of A$896 million.

Major exports to Brazil include coal, nickel ores, fertilisers and medicaments, while we import from Brazil mainly fruit juices, stockfeed, wood pulp and metals.

But now Australia has a new government and renewed enthusiasm for deepening and strengthening our commercial relationships, and here we wish to contribute in trade and investment to Brazil’s Growth Acceleration Program up to and beyond its end date of 2010.

New Australian Policy Frameworks

Enhancement of the relationship is also open to us through new Australian policy frameworks designed to maximise our country’s global economic competitiveness.

Many different economic directions are in the making in Australia that encompass both domestic and international dimensions.

For example, an “Education Revolution” is designed to deliver upgraded, modern digital technology beyond the school classroom into the boardroom.

It envisages a new National Broadband Network to deliver fast broadband access to 98 per cent of Australia’s homes and businesses to bring distinct advantages to companies’ export and investment capabilities.

A $200 million Enterprise Connect initiative seeks to connect businesses to new ideas and new technologies.

There is new thinking on innovation––an area in which Australia excels––that will translate in a whole-of-government way into expanding Australia’s productivity and international export reach.

Similarly, action is being taken to revolutionise Australia’s infrastructure, advantageous domestically but also serving to release some bottlenecks to exporting.

Multilateral trade liberalisation via the WTO Doha Round is the central focus of Australia’s trade liberalisation efforts across all sectors–agriculture, industrial products and services. A successful conclusion to the Doha Round would help to provide a much-needed degree of certainty to business and a confidence boost to the global outlook.

Natural Partners

These reforms––and there are many others––amount to widening the conversation between our two countries, particularly in the areas we are both good at, such as in mining, oil and gas, tourism, education, science and technology.

Opportunities also exist for increased Australian trade and investment in areas such as information technology, biotechnology, transport––rail systems and marine––telecommunications, banking and insurance, water and irrigation management, green power, and infrastructure.

Let this new Consulate-General be the symbol in Brazil of those closer ties with Australia and a source of a greater awareness about each other and what we have to offer each other.

We are natural partners in a number of areas.

Brazil is the world’s largest producer of ethanol and would work well with Australia in expanding the marketing and production of this fuel source.
Brazil is the largest market for Australian education in Latin America, simply because Brazil holds Australia’s education system in high regard––in 2007, more than 12,000 Brazilian students were enrolled at Australian institutions––an increase of 22% since last year.
- You are invited to read about Australian education and tourism in a publication we have on offer to you here this evening. It’s the Australia Guide 2008, produced in a collective partnership between Australian Government, business and the broader Australian community in Sao Paulo.
Australia and Brazil cooperate in the Cairns Group and through the G20 to promote agricultural trade liberalisation.
Brazil and Australia initiated an Air Services Agreement last year––the first of its kind between the two countries.
We work together on the Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) in promoting Latin America as a market for Australian exporters. It has supported many activities in Brazil, including cultural and trade promotion events.
We share Memoranda of Understanding on Education Cooperation, Science and Technology and Sanitary Matters which facilitate bilateral trade in agricultural products.
We participate in the CER-Mercosur Dialogue, bringing together Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, which serves to strengthen cooperation on global trade policy issues and to promote inter-regional trade and investment.
And both Australia and Brazil are members of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), which aims to increase and improve mutual understanding, political dialogue and cooperation among member states of East Asia and Latin America.

In such unity is strength.

We expect this new Consulate-General will represent the start of broadening community support and commercial linkages in the years to come.

Close

Examples of Australian success abound in this country:

In resources, BHP- Billiton, Rio Tinto, Troy Resources, Mundo Minerals, Mincom & Maptek, GRD Minproc;
In agribusiness and chemicals, Agrichem, Nufarm, AWB and Orica;
In business management, Recall (Brambles);
In insurance services, QBE Brazil;
In renewable energy, Pacific Hydro.

There are so many other success stories in the Brazil-Australia equation.

Australian companies represented here this evening, including Orica, QBE, Macquarie Bank and Pacific Hydro are, leading the way for others to come.

In cutting this ribbon, on behalf of the Australian Government representing all Australians, I declare this house of friendship with Brazil officially open.