Post-COVID opportunities and challenges for Tasmanian exporters doing business with China

03 Jun 2020

Join the Australia China Business Council Tasmania Branch for an in-depth look at the post-Covid opportunities and challenges for Tasmanian exporters doing business with China. Provided free for Tasmanian businesses (with a Tasmanian ABN) and ACBC Tasmania Branch members.

Opening Remarks

Lara Hendriks, Executive Director, Business and Trade Tasmania, Department of State Growth

Main address

Saul Eslake, Former Chief Economist, ANZ Bank, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Tasmania and a member of the Australian Parliamentary Budget Office’s Expert Advisory Panel

Panellists

David Olsson, Chairman, ACBC National Board

Bryan Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, Forico

Topics

China and Asia economic update
Discussion of Federal Government and Reserve Bank policy responses and the implications for different industry sectors
Implications for Tasmania’s economy, with a focus on the export-economy
Post-COVID commercial opportunities and challenges for Tasmanian businesses in China
Moderated question and answer session

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Event Speakers

Lara Hendriks

Executive Director, Business and Trade Tasmania, Department of State Growth

Lara Hendriks began her 25 year career in the field of accounting and business consultancy, before joining the Tasmanian State Service to work in the areas of regional, business and industry development. Lara has worked across 17 industry sectors and her current role as Executive Director encompasses a wide ranging portfolio including leading the Trade and Business’ development teams and activities for the Department of State Growth. This role includes overseeing the implementation of the Tasmanian Trade Strategy, the Tasmanian Advanced Manufacturing Action Plan; the Tasmanian Defence Strategy; and the Tasmanian Antarctic Gateway Strategy. Each requiring ambassadorial responsibilities, representing Tasmania and Australia, at numerous regional, industry, trade and Antarctic Treaty global forum

Saul Eslake

Former Chief Economist, ANZ Bank, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Tasmania and a member of the Australian Parliamentary Budget Office’s Expert Advisory Panel

Saul Eslake worked as an economist in the Australian financial markets for more than 25 years, including as Chief Economist at McIntosh Securities (a stockbroking firm) in the late 1980s, Chief Economist (International) at National Mutual Funds Management in the early 1990s, as Chief Economist at the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) from 1995 to 2009, and as Chief Economist (Australia & New Zealand) for Bank of America Merrill Lynch from 2011 until June 201 He took a break from the financial markets between July 2009 and December 2011, during which time he worked part-time as Director of the Productivity Growth Program at the Grattan Institute, a ‘think tank’ affiliated with Melbourne University, and as a freelance writer, speaker and consultant: and it is to these roles that he has returned since leaving Bank of America Merrill Lynch in June 2015. Saul is also a non-executive director of Hydro Tasmania, an energy business owned by the Tasmanian State Government. He has previously been a Member of the Howard Government’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Policy Advisory Councils; of the Rudd and Gillard Government’s Long Term Tourism Strategy Steering Committee and National Housing Supply Council; and of the Australian Statistics Advisory Committee. He has also previously served as a Director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (1997-2004) and as Chairman of the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board (2006-2011).

David Olsson

Chairman, ACBC National Board

David Olsson is a lawyer, company director and business leader with extensive executive and board experience with professional services firms, corporates, new ventures and government. He is a former partner at King & Wood Mallesons (and its predecessor firm) for more than 25 years. He held several key practice and management positions including as Managing Partner from 2004 to 2007 and as senior partner based in Beijing from 2008 to 2013. He is currently a senior consultant to the firm. He was elected as National President of the Australia China Business Council in November 2019, having previously served as a member of the Victorian branch executive committee of the ACBC and chaired its Finance and Investment Services Working Group and China Capital Markets Working Group. Complementing his work with the ACBC and KWM , David also acts as a business champion for the Australian Government’s New Colombo Program, leads several industry working groups that focus on financial market connectivity between Australia and China, is on the advisory board of the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative and the international advisory forum for AusIMM. He is vice-chair of the Australian National University Foundation and a non-executive director of Black Diamond Group Ltd. Previous roles include as former Chairman of AustCham, Beijing, former director/Chair of NFP Melbourne Affordable Housing and former member of the Australia-China Council.

Bryan Hayes

Chief Executive Officer, Forico

Bryan Hayes is the inaugural Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Forico Pty Limited which commenced operating in September 2014. Forico is Tasmania’s leading forestry plantation company with almost $A1 billion in assets under management including 173,000 hectares of land incorporating 92,000 hectares of industrial plantations and two world scale export woodchip facilities. He has a Bachelor of Business from UTas and has worked in the forestry industry for more than 47 years. Bryan is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the Institute of Foresters of Australia. He is Deputy Chair of Community Care Tasmania, a leading not-for-profit aged and disability care provider, as well as Deputy Chair of the Tasmanian Forests and Forest Products Network, former Chair and Director of the Arbre Forest Industries Training and Careers Hub and a member of the Foundation Committee of the Tasmanian Forest Products Association. Bryan has been directly involved in marketing wood fibre exports to North Asia since 1989 and has performed senior and executive roles in forestry for North Forest Products (owned by North Limited then Rio Tinto), Gunns Limited and then Forico since it’s inception in September 2014. He first visited North Asian customers in Japan in 1989, South Korea in 1997 and China in 2004. He has first-hand experience and knowledge of successfully conducting business in China and in collaboration with a marketing services provider is a regular visitor to negotiate volume and price contracts directly with end-users. Forico is a major wood fibre exporter to North Asia with more than 60% of current annual production, or around 1.1 million green metric tonnes, being supplied into China to two of the major pulp and paper manufacturers.