A LETTER from the Mercury to Chinese President Xi Jinping:
Welcome to our beautiful Tasmania, Mr President. May your brief stay open the window for you to see this is an amazing part of the world — ripe with opportunity and exceptionally warm in its welcome.
We trust you will leave tonight with a firm knowledge and understanding of all our fine state has to offer.
True, we are biased. We believe our combination of pristine natural resources, world-class food and tourism opportunities, clean air and water, higher education capabilities and beautiful climate makes Tasmania the best state in Australia. By a proverbial street.
We hope you will leave feeling the same way.
Your visit to Hobart is a significant step in the relationship between us; one which has been built on a spirit of friendship and mutual respect.
In our eyes, the first seeds of your visit were sewn by the relationship you developed with the late former premier Jim Bacon over many years.
Mr Bacon first visited China while at university and developed an immediate affinity with your country. As premier, he returned to build on the developing relationship with Fujian Province, which culminated in your good self — who was then governor — awarding him an honorary citizenship in 2001.
We were pleased that you then accepted the invitation from our existing Premier Will Hodgman earlier this year to visit.
Today, you will hear much about this state and its potential.
Front of mind will no doubt be tourism.
Lured by the beauty of our East Coast and Freycinet, to the breathtaking West and Cradle Mountain, to the untouched beauty of the Tarkine, to the sands and farms of Bruny Island, your country is now our biggest international growth market, up a remarkable 61 per cent in the past 12 months.
We expect this to grow exponentially in the wake of your visit. The key for us will be to ensure we can accommodate the expected surge in numbers. We are working on it.
To this end, it would be worth your while having a glance at the Macquarie Point land on Hobart’s waterfront, which would be a prime site for a world-class hotel, as well as for a significant project to recognise our countries’ growing collaborations over Antarctic research.
On this theme, you may be interested to know Australia’s Antarctic and marine research sector directly employs almost 1200 people, who pump more than $180 million into the Tasmanian economy each year. We look forward to more ideas and announcements on how we can work together in this space and have welcomed the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long back in our waters this week.
Education, also, is a key focus for us and our future. Our world-class University of Tasmania has 1000 Chinese students and hopes to double its overall number of international students to 8000 by 2018, to realise its vision to transform Hobart into a major university town.
We believe this represents a strong opportunity for China, whereby students can study in an environment which is among the safest, most secure and hospitable on offer.
Last, but by no means least, the Free Trade Agreement forged with Prime Minister Tony Abbott represents an important long-term opportunity for our countries to work in tandem.
Our $500 million aquaculture industry is expected to hit the billion-dollar mark in the next two decades while our burgeoning dairy industry is planning to double capacity.
Our wine industry is going from strength to strength, while in-ground resources of more than $11 billion have been identified in our mining sector, which remains our biggest export market.
The three Memorandum of Understanding agreements signed with Mr Hodgman at the weekend, which aim to foster greater ties across a range of areas including agriculture, mining and tourism, are an important and encouraging early step.
Most of all, we hope you get to feel the passion the people of Tasmania have for their state.
We are a parochial and proud lot but also an inclusive and tolerant community.
So Mr President, please enjoy your stay.
And we look forward to welcoming you back in the not-too-distant future — and guarantee the welcome mat is out for all visitors from China.
Sincerely,
Matt Deighton, Editor, Mercury
Rex Gardner, Chief Executive, Mercury |
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