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Australia's "forgotten army" in Asia key to its success: PwC report

Xinhua, September 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Despite having a growing expatriate community in Asia, Australia is not doing enough to engage and utilize this talent and is poorly positioned to do so in future, according to a report released by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Monday.

With the Asian region to account for half the world's GDP by 2025, and the Asian middle class population swelling to more than 3 billion by 2030, there is no doubt that this is the Asian Century.

Yet, the findings of the report show the opportunity for Australia's success in Asia continues to pass it by. Australia does have the talent to succeed in Asia, but it is not doing enough to foster, prepare and deploy this talent in the region.

Australia's growing expatriate population in Asia will play a pivotal role in helping the country grasp the Asia opportunity, according to the report.

"We have hundreds of thousands of expatriate Australians amounting to a forgotten army - overlooked by policymakers in Australia and passed over by business when they choose to return," Jason Hayes, PwC Australia Partner and Japan Practice Leader, said while launching the report: Our diaspora's got talent: Australia's advantage in Asia.

The report includes PwC data modeling which suggests that by 2030 there will be 450,000 Australians living and working abroad in Asia, representing one-third of its total expatriate community, up from approximately one-fifth of the total today.

Given the paucity of available statistics on the number of Australians living and working abroad in Asia, PwC believes the prediction above is conservative.

"Australians from every field are doing great things in Asia and have been doing so for some time now. Our expatriate workforce is also rebalancing away from the US and UK towards Asia, so the good news is this community is only going to get bigger. This highly educated and global savvy workforce can be harnessed to help produce a more Asia-ready Australia, but we need leadership from the government, education and corporate sectors to make this happen," he said.

China and Japan already make up a significant share of Australia's inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and the proportion of FDI sourced from Asia is expected to only increase from here, the report said.

"Australia must consider how to capitalize on the new skills, contacts and opportunities our expatriates have formulated in Asia, and help those returning to reintegrate into the Australian landscape in a way that takes full advantage of their unique knowledge of the region," Hayes added.

The report reiterated that it is imperative for Australia to seize the Asian opportunity. PwC's previous report "Passing Us By" argued that Australia's cultural understanding of Asia is lacking, "In short, in many cases, we simply don't know how to do business in Asia." Endit