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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-07-25 Daily Xml
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China Trade

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Stephens. Wait for the call, Hon. Mr Stephens. You jumped the gun there.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:40): I actually leapt to my feet hoping to get the call. My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister update the council on the recent announcement of additional China Southern services between Guangzhou and Adelaide and how this is big news for our tourism sector and furthering our strong relationship with China?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in growing our tourism visitor economy. As honourable members may be aware, I travelled to China recently to support 26 South Australian business delegates in their quest to reach into or expand their presence in the burgeoning Chinese market. The delegates came from a diverse range of sectors, including health and sciences, international education, research and development, and water, environment and infrastructure.

The delegates visited 10 cities. These included Qingdao, Jinan in Shandong province—we have had a 32-year relationship with Shandong as a sister state—and the megacities of Beijing and Shanghai and Guangzhou in the Guangdong province, a massive trading hub and a key entry point for many South Australian exports and the home of China Southern Airlines.

While I was in Guangzhou, I was fortunate enough to meet the chief economist, Mr Su Liang, and his team from China Southern. As all honourable members are probably aware, China Southern has deepened its relationships with Adelaide through their sponsorship of the Adelaide Crows.

Before I left for China, I was delighted to stand alongside Mr John Yu, general manager of China Southern, and Mr Mark Young, managing director of Adelaide Airport. We jointly announced that China Southern will expand from three services per week to five services, and during the peak season a daily service between Guangzhou and Adelaide. As of February 2019, China Southern will maintain five services per week. This means the current number of seats will jump from 651 per week to 1,974 seats during peak periods. It is an absolute coup for our state and a vote of confidence in the Marshall Liberal team's plan for growth, underpinned by more jobs, lower costs and better services.

This is a big tourism story. Last week we saw tourism expenditure in South Australia hit $6.7 billion. Expenditure by Chinese visitors was up to $415 million from $315 million—a massive 32 per cent jump from a year earlier. But there is still more work to be done to meet our global goal of $8 billion visitor expenditure by 2020.

China Southern is a critical partner with South Australia. Direct flights from China are obviously fundamental to growing the visitor economy by enabling Chinese tourists to get here easily. But there is so much more to that story. Direct flights through Guangzhou can be a focal point for visitors from the Northern Hemisphere. The Premier has already talked about doubling our share of international students as an aspiration.

More frequent flights make South Australia more appealing as a study destination. They also make it more appealing for Chinese companies to set up their operations here by enabling their staff and executives to travel more easily. It provides more opportunities for our high-value dairy, horticulture and seafood operators to send their products to China and take advantage of the China- Australia Free Trade Agreement.

We also talked about how we can work together to improve the flow of international visitors and international students into South Australia to make our city a more compelling proposition for investment and to provide more opportunity and lower freight cost to our exporters.

Ultimately, this will drive a virtuous circle. When China Southern makes more money from flying in and out of South Australia, they will feel more confident to invest in more frequent services. This creates more opportunities for our economy, making business more confident to be able to reach out to the world and grow their operation through accessing more markets. We look forward to continuing our very prosperous partnership with China Southern and growing our economy in the process.

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