Event: Australia-China CEO Roundtable in Beijing, China – Bran Black report back
Speakers: Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black
Date: 15 July 2025
Topics: Trade, Australia-China relations, business environment
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Your Excellency, Premier Li Qiang.
Minister Wang.
Prime Minister Albanese.
Ambassadors and state representatives.
We are deeply honoured to be joined by you here, and to report back to you on the roundtable our business leaders have taken part in today.
Thank you also to my co-Chair Mr. Zhao Huan, Chairman of the China Development Bank, whom you will hear from shortly.
This – our eighth Australia-China CEO Roundtable – was an opportunity to focus on continuity, certainty and growth opportunities in one of Australia’s most important relationships.
And it’s particularly pleasing to be back in Beijing for this roundtable for the first time since 2016.
As I said at our report to you last year, it’s for governments to set the terms of trading and investment relationships, and for the business community to bring those relationships to life. And as business leaders we embrace that responsibility.
When we last held this roundtable, there was momentum building in our relationship, and over the last year we have seen the fruits of greater cooperation.
And while we have come far, our business leaders still see great opportunity to further deepen our economic ties.
Your Excellency, Minister, Prime Minister – before Mr. Zhao provides a summary of commentary shared by our Chinese roundtable participants today, I will share some of the key recommendations made by our Australian participants.
In this regard, I’m delighted to be joined by our Business Council of Australia members who have travelled with me to be here.
At this afternoon’s roundtable, Australian participants provided remarks and recommendations across four areas of discussion.
We first addressed how to further deepen and expand bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
On this topic, we heard from our Australian delegation of the importance of mutual recognition of qualifications and ensuring that we facilitate the transferability of expertise, and of the value of interoperability of sustainable finance taxonomies.
We next explored how to build cooperation in existing and emerging fields, such as education and smart agriculture.
Our Australian members shared that we should consider establishing a regular ministerial dialogue on education, including with respect to lifelong learning, and there are opportunities for farmers to partner to develop smart agriculture programs focused on irrigation, precision farming, and tech adoption.
We next discussed how enterprises and governments of both countries could further improve the bilateral business environment.
In this area, we heard from our Australian members on opportunities to modernise ChAFTA, and how we might explore special economic zones and regulatory frameworks to ease cross-border business.
Lastly, we discussed cooperation in the green economy and green, low-carbon transformation.
You heard some of these contributions in Shanghai, but, broadly, the Australian feedback emphasised first, the importance of facilitating new partnerships between our steelmakers and iron ore resources companies, and secondly, the importance of prioritising collaborative R&D on low-emission steelmaking and green metals.
Your Excellency, Minister Wang, Prime Minister – the economic and business relationship between Australia and China is already strong and robust.
But what I have spoken to reflects just a sample of the points raised today by Australian business leaders as opportunities for further cooperation.
I know Mr. Zhao will shortly share many more valuable insights from the Chinese delegation, and we will of course share a comprehensive summary with you in the coming days.
As we look towards the future, our broadest recommendation is that we must be bold in seizing the many opportunities in front of us.
It goes without saying that constructive dialogue between our two nations gives business confidence.
And, to that end, this roundtable continues to be the best place to build the personal relationships that are foundational to our nations’ economic relationship.
On behalf of the Australian delegation, I thank you for your leadership and the spirit of cooperation that continues to define our relationship.
We look forward to writing the next chapter with you.
Thank you.