Gillard launches Government’s Asian Century white paper

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard today launched the Government’s Asian Century white paper and pledged to increase the focus on students learning a priority language from the region. The White Paper, led by economist Dr Ken Henry and Australia’s leading academic, corporate and social experts, sets out 25 targets for over the next 13 years to ensure Australia can fulfill its ambitions and compete effectively within Asia. The policy document sets out these objectives for Australia to take advantage of the Asian boom by 2025 which are divided into five key areas: the economy, education and skills, commerce, regional security and culture.

The Prime Minister described it as a road map for national success as Asia’s unstoppable rise continues. She said as part of an emphasis on education, Australian school system will be in the top five in the world, and 10 of its universities in the world’s top 100. All students will have continuous access to a priority Asian language – China’s Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese. She said Australian diplomatic network will have a larger footprint across Asia supporting stronger, deeper and broader links with Asian nations. And Australian leaders will be more Asia literate, with one-third of board members of Australia’s top 200 publicly listed companies and Commonwealth bodies having deep experience in and knowledge of Asia. The White paper also says Australia could help meet increasing demand for food as the Asian population grows and becomes richer. The Australian Prime Minister said Asia is not only becoming the world’s largest producer of goods and services; it is becoming the largest consumer of them