Interview: Westpac sees "fantastic opportunity" investing in Chinese market

Westpac Banking Corporation sees a " fantastic opportunity" investing in the Chinese market as the governments of Australia and China prepare to sign the China- Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Westpac, one of the four largest institutional and retail banks in Australia, has been operating in China for over 40 years in what they call the "China corridor," facilitating investment, capital and people flows.

Westpac's Greater China Director, Andrew McKenzie, said there is fantastic opportunity in the Chinese market, however Australian businesses looking to take advantage of the China-Australia FTA must not look at China holistically and take a more targeted approach.

"China has 1.3 billion people, it's a large number of different provinces. Each province has its own language dialect," McKenzie said. "Be very focused and look at the different demographics of the different cities and different provinces."

"The statistic that I have to keep reminding myself is that when you think about the population of Shanghai, it is exactly the same as the population of the whole of Australia. So if someone was looking to say, for arguments sake, to export a dairy product from Australia and just export it to Shanghai, they've all of a sudden replicated the same size market as they have here in Australia. You don't need to be spreading yourself all over China. "

Market analysts are growing concerned at the slowing down of the Chinese economy to a predicted 7 percent of GDP growth, particularly for Australia's commodity exporters. However, McKenzie said 7 percent GDP growth is still very strong.

"As China continues to emerge and develop, particularly as it starts to move towards a consumption led economy, there's more reliance on the services sector," McKenzie said. "In China, there are certain sectors certainly above 7 percent, and there is obviously certain sectors growing below 7 percent. So, I think its just part of the evolution and the growth of China."

McKenzie said the amount of trade between Australia and China is expected to significantly increase as tariffs start to reduce over time.

"You only need to look at the increase in trade that New Zealand was able to achieve when it entered into its free trade agreement in 2008 with China. In that situation you saw 44 percent year on year increase in growth. So we expect to see a similar sort of increase in the trade flows."

However, it's Australia's service sector that McKenzie said will have the most benefit.

"The China-Australia FTA gives unprecedented access to Australian services companies into the Chinese market," McKenzie said. "Australian education, tourism, telecommunications, healthcare, financial services, can grant access into China, either by partnering up with Chinese companies, or in certain situations being able to access those markets directly."

Resulting from bilateral FTA, the Australian government expects study-related travel to grow strongly. Last year, the Australian government changed visa restrictions allowing Chinese secondary school students to study in Australia's public school system, resulting in a 25 percent increase of enrollments in New South Wales (NSW). The continued educational and fiscal engagement between China and Australia has been facilitated by the strength of the relationship.

McKenzie said this strength is what allowed both governments to respond to market forces, making Sydney the next Renminbi (RNB) hub.

"When we talk to a lot of our clients, in Australia, they are only transacting with China," McKenzie said. "When they talk to their suppliers in China, there is an absolute interest in being able to invoice and receive payment in RNB."

McKenzie said it was an important step in China slowly starting to open up the internationalization of its currency for global trade.

"In a lot of ways Australia is being quite well served because three years ago Westpac in China was awarded a market maker license for Australian dollar/CNY (RNB) conversion," McKenzie said.

The Shanghai free trade zone was established in late 2013 as a pilot for the financial and economic reforms the Chinese leadership wanted to introduce, giving what McKenzie said a lot of positive initiatives have been implemented for both China and Australia.

"The negative list is by way of an example whereby it is now a lot easier for our Australian clients who may be wanting to enter the china market to be able to do it through the shanghai free trade zone."

While the Reserve Bank of Australia said the service sector investment in China will hopefully kick-start Australia's sluggish economy, McKenzie said the China-Australia FTA will hopefully see more investment in Australia coming from China.

"The threshold for investment has been given at the same level as Australia has granted the United States in the Australia-U.S. free trade agreement."

The Chinese investment into Australia over the past decade has increased Chinese understanding of the Australian investment climate. McKenzie said this has resulted in very successful Chinese investments, which provide a foundation for investment under China-Australia FTA. Endi