Australia ready for Asia: Keating

Australia ready for Asia: Keating

CANBERRA (AFP): Australia has reformed its business and
popular culture and made the necessary macro-economic changes to
take its place in Southeast Asia as an exporter of high-value-
added goods, Prime Minister Paul Keating said yesterday.

Keating told a business seminar attended here by about 100
Australian and Singaporean executives that both countries needed
to look beyond the popular stereotypes of each other.

And he appealed to Singaporean business to accept Australia
was now an efficient economy, with low inflation, solid economic
growth, and highly developed manufacturing and services sectors
based on a highly skilled education system.

A visiting business delegation led by Singapore's Trade and
Industry Minister Goh Chee Wee includes representatives of the
Economic Development Board (EDB) and 12 leading Singaporean
firms.

Launching a joint Singapore-Australia program aimed at easing
the path for companies from both countries to establish joint
ventures elsewhere in Asia, Keating said many stereotypes about
Australia were now outdated.

Both countries had identified the same potential markets and
it was logical for them to cooperate in developing opportunities.

The Southeast Asian and Australian markets had combined gross
domestic product of about A$1,000 billion (US$700 billion), with
a population of 300 million people, making it an area of
"tremendous potential", he said.