Business Alliance for Asia Literacy
27 May 2009
The Business Council of Australia is a member of the Business Alliance for Asia Literacy. The alliance was publicly launched on 5 May 2009.
The alliance is made up of a number of Australian businesses and industry organisations who together represent who represent over 400,000 Australian businesses.
Asia is already a key economic region for Australia. Four of our top six trading partners comprise China, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. India is one of our fastest growing export markets. In addition we have vital economic and wider interests in Indonesia and the other nations of South East Asia. The economic and wider strategic importance of Asia will continue to grow in the decades ahead.
For this reason, we must give a high priority to improving our ability to build effective and lasting relationships with the nations of Asia.
The alliance is calling on schools, school communities, education providers and governments to put in place the programs and policies necessary so that Asia skills and Asian languages are a core part of Australian curriculum and that delivery of this is adequately funded. It is also calling for senior students to be given incentives to take up Asia studies and Asian languages, and for teachers to be equipped and available to teach Asia skills.