CHINESE TRANSLATION SPECIALISTS

The China figures continue to shock and amaze us – we’ve heard them before, but I’m always staggered to see predictions continue to come true and new forecasts that defy belief. Kevin Rudd, in his Australia China 2.0 presentation,  engaged the Melbourne audience with his numbers, amazing graphs, statistics that wowed the audience, and, of course, a commanding grasp of the subject – China.

Mr Rudd quoted McKinsey’s estimate of the need for 50,000 new skyscrapers to be built to accommodate the rapidly urbanising population in the next 15 years. He highlighted the dramatic change from 1980 when 19% of the population lived in urban areas to a figure approaching 50% today and increasing (that’s over half a billion people). Eight cities currently have populations over 10 million and 93 more than 5 million. Needless to say, China’s consumption of steel, concrete and many other minerals is around  50% of the world’s total. You get a bit blasé after a while reading such numbers, don’t you!

I was delighted to hear that the Foreign Minister’s lifetime aim is to make Australia the most China-literate western country; I’m guessing a few other countries probably fancy their chances too. The US has a program to send over 100,000 students to China for study; meanwhile the number of Australians studying Chinese Language continues to decline.

What can we do?  Another favourite topic of Mr Rudd and mine is that businesses and organisations need to tap into the expertise we have in abundance – Chinese origin workers and graduates with language and cross-cultural skills who can assist businesses to get on in China and just need to be trained. Businesses that want to engage with China must have Chinese Language capability – that is something Chin Communications does every day of the year – helps businesses to better communicate and get their messages across accurately and appropriately in China.

The Foreign Minister and Trade Minister Emerson are leading a major mission of businesspeople to China to visit the new centres of growth – some of which will grow by upwards of 20% over the next decade.  It is over ten years since a Mission like this was put together and the opportunity to engage at high levels with the imprimatur of the Australian government is one you ought to consider.

And here is one final ripper to leave you with: China is now the world’s fourth largest exporter of commercial services – a 32% increase on the previous year (also the third largest importer of services)! A lot of the services China needs look like they’ll be in urbanisation – e.g. sustainability and design; also aged care, financial/wealth management, tourism, education and in green technologies – things that Australia is good at. Mr Rudd and Mr Emerson, I’m sure, will value the services to be provided by our own Charles Qin, Mandarin Interpreter, during the mission in early August.  To find out more about the Mission: Rudd and Emerson China Mission and for some of Rudd’s presentation: Asialink Australia China Services Trade is the Future.