On Wednesday 29 April the Armidale Business Chamber will host an event with the UNE Business School at 5.15pm at the TAS Hoskins Centre to share observations about doing business with Australia’s number one trading partners.

UNE Business School’s recent China Study Tour – led by Dr Lou Conway, Dr Tony Ramsay and The Land’s Matt Cawood – took 28 students to Beijing, Shandong, Shanghai and Hong Kong. At the same time UNE Business School is conducting interesting research into business in China at a time when China has become Australia’s number one trading partner.

This briefing offers you:

• Lou Conway, Matt Cawood and students sharing the group’s observations into business customers and culture of Asia’s fastest growing economy;
• John Rice (Professor of Management) with research findings on consumer trends amongst China’s emerging middle class;
• Derek Baker (Professor of Agribusiness and Value Chains) sharing his experience in project design and implementation in Chinese agribusiness.

This briefing will be a great opportunity to gain up-to-date insights – especially about how Chinese consumers respond to products from Australia and other countries – useful in working out our mindset to succeed in doing business in China.

Students will describe how the numerous briefings including the Australian Embassy in Bejing, National Australia Bank in Shanghai, and Jardines and Citi in Hong Kong has changed how they view their future career. They visited a vertically-integrated cattle feedlot, a 5000-cow Australian-developed dairy, a GM car factory and a suburb-sized vegetable greenhouse and saw the scale of production in China. Students saw the astonishing wealth that has gravitated to the centres of Tier One Chinese cities like Bejing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and more importantly stopped seeing China as a bundle of dry statistics and began to see it through the lens of Chinese society.

It would be safe to say that no-one returned unchanged – not just in their views about China and its new status as an economic powerhouse, but in their perceptions of Australia and its ability to engage with China.

Researchers Professor John Rice and Professor Derek Baker will share valuable information for those interested in engaging in business within China.

The event is free and registration to attend is required by phoning Tracy Pendergast on 677711177 or visiting the Chamber website to register at www.armidalechamber.com.au

For more information at UNE contact:

Professor John Rice on 67732474 or jrice6@une.edu.au

Professor Derek Baker 67732627 or derek.baker@une.edu.au