LIVING WITH ASIA: 'Australia needs a new Colombo Plan'

ATI Magazine April/May 2013 issue

THE Australian Government’s Asian Century White Paper is a decade overdue, says Trevor Rowe, one of a small group of genuinely influential Australian executives with deep links into the region. Rowe, now Executive Chairman of Rothschild Australia, says the aspirational objectives of the White Paper are laudable, but he finds it disappointing that it fails to discuss how Australians can engage more meaningfully with Asia. If Australia is going to be other than Asia’s ‘quarry’, he says, it needs to develop its comparative advantages – and an understanding and respect of Asian culture . . .