South Australia - Shandong Delegation May 2015
The opportunity arose for me to participate in the South Australia Shandong Delegation to China through my role as a Councillor of the AIA SA Chapter and the ability to fund my way thanks to the Jack Hobbs McConnell Travelling Fellowship.
I didn't really quite know what to expect in China but I can safely say it was one of the most remarkable, eye opening experiences of my life. The scale of the country and its incredible hospitality are two things that will remain with me always.
So to begin, here is a short breakdown of the delegation and some Shandong facts:
- Shandong and South Australia have been sister states since 1986 with a rich history of cultural and academic exchange
- There have been a number of visits by state leaders over the years including (Lynn Arnold, Dean Brown, Mike Rann, Jay Weatherill)
- Sean Keenihan (Chair of the China Advisory Committee) identified that growing our relationship with Shandong would be a very strategic way to access a population of more than 100 million people for business, trade, education & tourism.
- Fundamentally it's aim is to foster stronger links between Australian & Chinese businesses by using government as the facilitator.
- The delegation consisted of nearly 250 people with two-thirds of those self funded South Australian businesses and organisations.
- I represented the SA Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects with State President David Homburg as well as my Architecture practice Grieve Gillett Dimitty Andersen Architects.
- There were seven streams in total represented including: Services, Agribusiness, Tourism & Education, Health, Disability & Aged Care, Mining, Culture and Local Government Initiatives.
- Each stream was supported by a relevant government office. My services stream was supported by the Department of State Development
- We visited the Provincial capital Jinan (6.8 million) and then the industrial port city of Qingdao (5.7 million).
- Shandong is home to the world's largest whitegood and electrical appliance company Haier (10% of the market globally) and the beer Tsingtao
- Shandong is home to more than 16 million people over the age of 60
The Services Stream
The Services stream all met for the first time in Jinan on the 24th of May and included:
Industry Leader
Jane Yulie (Chair - ANZ SA)
Dept of State Development (DSD)
Megan Antcliff (Director - Strategic Projects & Innovation / Tonsley Redevelopment)
Gavin Artz (Prinicipal Project Officer - Industry & Innovation)
Architecture & Design
David Homburg (Principle of HASSELL & President SA Chapter of AIA)
Phil Donaldson (Sustain SA)
Dino Vrynios (Architect at GGDAA & Creative Director of SA Festival of Architecture and Design)
Water Security & Supply
Andy Roberts (CEO of the Water Industry Alliance)
Andrew Townsend (Micromet)
Simulation and Modelling
John Stewart (CEO of Simulation Australasia)
Waste and Recycling
Richard Stewart (Ziltek)
Professional Services
Simon Olesen (Deloitte)
The overarching theme devised by the stream was 'Liveability'.
In China, they love lists and because Adelaide and South Australia often features in top 10 'most liveable' lists, it gave us a something we could all draw on in our presentations. The 'cluster' model being championed by government aims to pull together Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME's) and this collaborative approach also allowed us to to sell something bigger than what we could offer as individuals.
Jinan
The format for the first round of discussions in Jinan was made up of presentations by the Services stream followed by return presentations by invited Chinese business and organisations. Finally we broke up into smaller groups and held one on one conversations with the aid of translators.
The most important thing I took away from this experience was the influence government has in China. I was in discussions with the Shandong Provincial Architecture and Design Institute and having great difficulty communicating that I was representing the Australian Institute of Architects in South Australia (they seemed to believe that if I worked for a private company I couldn't be representing the wider profession)
Seeing the difficulty I was having, Megan Antcliff joined me at the table along with a Shandong Government official and the conversation quickly changed into a very positive one. The potential outcome of this meeting may develop into a MoU that would see the SDAD connect SA architects to support their local Architecture practices with design competitions. Much like in SA, their local industry is being tested by an influx of other provincial and international practices entering the market. They have developed a model like this already with a Bavarian Architecture and Design Institute with great success.
I know that back home there was a great deal of criticism towards the number of government officials travelling to China, but I can say without reservation, it simply would not have worked without them. In China, government is afforded with a great deal more respect than here in Australia and it was essential to have them at the table with us to facilitate these opportunities. It brought with it a level of trust, which if you ask anyone who has undertaken business in China, takes a long time to earn.
We also met with state and privately owned developers who deliver projects on a city scale. These organisations could literally build everything from the underground services to the buildings they feed and everything in between.
The day was wrapped up with a Gala Dinner showcasing South Australian produce. I was fortunate enough to be seated on the same table as the new Lord Mayor Martin Haese & Lady Mayoress Genevieve Theseira-Haese.
For me this trip was an invaluable experience to expose me to influential people I would normally not have access to. I was able to discuss my work, my fellowship, test ideas and get incredible feedback (I even shared a lift ride with Jay himself!)
Jinan to Qingdao
A great example of this took place the following day on our long bus ride from Jinan to Qingdao. I spent time talking with Megan Antcliff about her career and her vision for the Tonsley Development as well as participate in an inspiring conversation as to why Adelaide should be the pilot city for the Driverless car.
More on that one later...
We never quite made it to Qingdao though because Andy Roberts & Andrew Townsend had facilitated a visit to a local plastics manufacturing company. We were picked up at a petrol station rendevouz and headed straight to a local restaurant. We were greeted by a table of uncooked meat and seafood. We chose our protein and headed upstairs to a private room where our host Frank started the banquet with a toast. After several long necks of warm Tsingtao and an incredible spread of food like nothing I have ever experienced, we continued on to Frank's facility.
Facility doesn't actually accurately describe what we saw. It was actually more like a village where employees work, live and play. His staff completed a presentation and we completed a tour of their head office (with a room full of Shandong's brightest designing everything from bumper bars to chassis for China's high speed trains) and then on to the actual fabrication buildings. There were dozens of them and the scariest thing is that only 10% of the buildings were actually operational. Frank tells us that they have big plans.
Our gracious hosts then chauffered us to our hotel in Qingdao - some 80kms and peak hour traffic away - where I promptly crashed and burned.
Qingdao
The next day, the 26th of May, was our next round of presentations in Qingdao. It was a slightly different arrangement than in Jinan where instead of breaking into the seven different streams we presented to the entire South Australian delegation and invited Qingdao based businesses and organisations. This was great because it allowed us to see what other streams were offering.
Once the presentations finished we were all provided with a table and what ensued is best described as speed dating for business.
Many thanks to Sean Choong from Work Visa Lawyers at Torrensville who was by far the best translator I had. David Homburg and I had further conversations with State and Privately owned companies like those mentioned earlier (and in some instances further conversations that started in Jinan).
Given the AIA had no idea what to expect of this delegation, I feel it presents a number of tangible opportunities. To borrow one of David Homburg's analogies, we need to stop fighting over the same chip on our small beach. China is certainly a very big beach!
The official proceedings culminated with a buffett lunch where the food would not stop coming (so hospitable). After this David and I chose to attend a private tour of Haier (this requires its own blog entry).
By late afternoon, people had started the voyage back to Adelaide, but for those that remained a Dinner had been organised at a local banquet restaurant. It was a brilliant way to wrap up the whole delegation with the highlight being Martin Haese leading a toast to our Shandong hosts on the other side of the room when midway through a Qingdao local joined the Lord Mayor (somehow with a wireless microphone) and led the whole restaurant in a recipricol 'Ganbei'
I left the hotel the mid-morning the following day and managed to share a cab ride to the airport with Bryan Moulds of Masonic Homes and we spent the entire trip discussing the future of Aged Care and Assisted Living and the role Architecture can play in developing new models.
What's Next?
The first step will be to download what we learned and proliferate it amongst our aligned design colleagues. We will need to work closely with DSD, and the other streams, to identify what the opportunities are and how we package together our offering. The return leg will see our Shandong hosts venture to Adelaide in the first week in September.
I believe that if want to have a sustainable and prosperous future in South Australia we have to shift our thinking and I think that China is a good place to start.
