Event: Doorstop in Beijing, China with BCA Chief Executive Bran Black
Speakers: Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Bran Black
Date: 15 July 2025
Topics: Australia-China CEO Roundtable, trade, competitive settings
E&OE
Bran Black, Business Council Chief Executive: Today is a really important day. This is the eighth Australia–China CEO Roundtable, but it’s also, importantly, the first time that this Roundtable has been held in Beijing since 2016, and we thank the Prime Minister for bringing this opportunity together.
It’s important for a number of key reasons. First and foremost, it sends a signal that partnership and engagement between Australian and Chinese businesses is not only something to be welcomed, but something that we should actively encourage.
Secondly, what we’re pleased by is that we’ll have the opportunity today to engage directly with Chinese businesses in relation to a number of key areas where we see scope to enhance the relationship — in areas such as agribusiness, professional services, financial services, higher education, and green metals.
And why is all this important? Because at the end of the day, one in four Australian jobs is dependent upon trade. That’s an important figure. But it also reflects the fact that $312 billion in two-way trade moved through Australia just in 2024, and that, in turn, represents almost a quarter of Australia’s trade with the world.
To put that in perspective, Australia’s trade with the world is worth almost 50 per cent of our GDP, so this relationship matters. The connections that are established and confirmed in fixtures such as this, where we bring business leaders from both countries together — they help consolidate the relationship, and they help build jobs and opportunity back home in Australia. Thank you very much.
Journalist: For years now, we’ve heard that the Australian Government and business need to diversify away from China to ensure that we don’t have a similar situation as the economic coercion tactics of a few years ago. So is there a risk around really playing back into this market in a really big way?
Bran: We see that there are enormous opportunities in terms of our engagement with China, but we also see diversification as an inherent good in and of itself. So people talk about diversification sometimes as being purely a risk mitigant. From our perspective, diversification is a good thing because it exposes us to multiple markets.
So from our perspective, we say: let’s try and have the best possible relationship that we can with China, let’s try and make sure that we can establish trade opportunities that help jobs and businesses back home, but let’s also concentrate on the engagements that we have overseas with countries like the United Arab Emirates, countries like India, countries like those in Southeast Asia, where we’re doing a lot of work to try and consolidate and build on existing relationships.
Journalist: The conversations you’ve had with Australian CEOs, have they fully embraced the Chinese market after they’ve suffered the last couple of years, or is there still a bit of wariness?
Bran: I think our CEOs, particularly the 14 that are here with me, are really pleased to be able to have the opportunity to engage further, to establish new relationships, to consolidate existing relationships. All of those things matter to them, and we’re delighted to have a chance to engage with them in that regard.
But to my earlier point, they also see opportunities elsewhere, and that is a good thing. We should be encouraging our businesses and our CEOs to diversify to the greatest possible extent. That’s not just a risk mitigant, but it’s good business.
Journalist: How important is the meeting between the Prime Minister and President Xi in terms of setting the tone of the relationship with China, in order for business to then do business-to-business partnerships?
Bran: It’s so important to have those strong engagements at the leader level, because what that does is set the tone for the engagements that we’re able to have at a business-to-business level as well.
Now, those business-to-business engagements, in turn, help, as I said before, send a bit of a signal to Australian businesses and to Chinese businesses that further engagement is welcome and further engagement should be encouraged.
So we see these types of engagements with China, with the United States, with the European Union, with other countries as all being of critical importance.
Journalist: What are the areas that you want to see Australia and China work on? What about AI, did you see that suggestion from China about including in the free trade agreement?
Bran: I think the Australian Government has been very clear on its position in terms of artificial intelligence.
Journalist: What are you hearing from your Chinese counterparts about investment in Australia? Are they also wary of investment in Australia, particularly in the context of the government decision about the Landbridge … and putting that back into Australian hands?
Bran: We continue to see that there is an enormous amount of interest here in China, and indeed elsewhere, in investing and partnering with Australia. We consistently hear that there are a number of settings that businesses would like to see improved in terms of their engagement in Australia, particularly around the existence of, as has been put to me, too much regulation, too much red tape.
We see that as well in terms of planning systems and hold-ups around areas like the EPBC Act and so forth. All of those things are points that are consistently raised with us by counterparts in China, but also counterparts in other countries as well.
Journalist: Do you think, given that China has its own strict foreign investment and ownership laws, particularly around critical infrastructure, that it is hypocritical for the Chinese media, state media, to now be criticising this decision by Australia to essentially do the same thing and ensure a critical piece of infrastructure in the Darwin Port remains in Australian hands?
Bran: I think it’s always a prerogative of countries to make points that they regard as being in their national interest, and so the Prime Minister’s been very clear on that. Importantly, I think it’s been clear before the election, this was a position that he took pre-election. He’s achieved a mandate in relation to that position as a consequence of the election, and now he’s been clear on that position post-election as well.
Journalist: And is the business community concerned, though, that as these security issues play out in this regard, but also things like the development of the AUKUS program, that you will be the collateral damage and subject to economic coercion?
Bran: Well, I think that underlines the importance of making sure that business-to-business engagement is as strong and prosperous as it can be.
Journalist: Just on the settings around foreign direct investment. Sorry, are the settings around foreign direct investment too stringent and not allowing Chinese companies to invest in Australia?
Bran: We see that every developed country has the same types of processes that we do in Australia in terms of foreign investment, and that is an appropriate thing. Now, we welcome and we encourage investment in Australia as much as possible. We think it is a good thing, but it is also incredibly appropriate that all investment is tested and tempered by these types of processes that we have in place, and that other countries have in place.
Journalist: But given the relationship is stabilising, then should we be relaxing some of those foreign investment aspects? Do we make it easier for that investment to come in from countries? Should we be expanding what’s on offer at a political level?
Bran: Well, I think we should make sure that we’ve got the right type of processes for the consideration of these issues. We would say it’s appropriate that we have the testing that we do right now. What we would like to see is those processes sped up, but that’s work that the government is undertaking.
What we’d really like to see in terms of trying to attract investment is work that can be done to make sure that Australia’s competitive settings are as attractive as possible for foreign capital. And that goes really to the point that I made before about the importance of the Productivity Roundtable and the steps that we will be taking in that respect.
Journalist: Given the cost of trade around the world is changing at the moment, with the US putting tariffs on goods going into the United States. In Asia, the trade lines are being redrawn. It’s a very uncertain environment. Do you anticipate that actual business-to-business trade might be lessened until we have a clearer picture of what it will actually cost to import and export goods around the world?
Bran: I think that’s a really important question, because what it underlines is the kind of steps that we need to take in order to safeguard against some of the uncertainty we see in the world right now.
And as I said, when you’re dealing with uncertainty, such as there is, and I don’t think anybody would argue with the proposition that we see it, we can really just control those things that are within our scope to control.
Australia is but a small country at the end of the day, but we do have the scope to make sure that at home, we have the right type of settings in place to bring in investment, which helps make sure that we’ve got the best chance of securing and increasing jobs and opportunity.
But also, we can engage with the world at a bilateral and multilateral level and continue to assert the importance of free trade. For us, we emphasise one in four jobs is trade dependent. So, for Australia, it matters to back in free trade to the greatest possible extent.
Journalist: How about those things, though, that you simply can’t control? I refer to the growing sense that under the Trump Administration that the United States’ trade with China is going to be that much more difficult to manage. How do your members factor in that risk, and what do they expect out of today to try and mitigate it?
Bran: Another good question. The key thing that our members try and do is understand the world around them. So that’s through engagements such as this, it’s through their own engagements with counterparts overseas, it’s through seeking expert advice.
It’s difficult to understand the world around you at times like this, but you need to invest as much as possible in doing so. The other thing, of course, is that we engage to try and improve Australia’s competitive settings, that is indeed the best thing that we can do, making sure that Australia, at home, with the right type of economic settings in place, is as resilient as possible to external events.
Journalist: So what concerns do you have that the government policy for the Port of Darwin to return to Australian hands would have an economic coercion impact on the businesses that you represent?
Bran: As I say, this is a decision that the government has made. It took it to the election. It’s got a mandate to take that decision.
Journalist: But is that a live concern for business about what could flow from that?
Bran: What we seek to do in these types of circumstances, and in all circumstances, is make sure that we can operate within the scope of the diplomatic relationship (inaudible) by government to the greatest possible extent. So government sets the terms of those engagements. We operate within those terms, and we try and maximise the scope for business to engage. So that means fixtures like this have the importance of being able to secure the relationships that back in more trade, back in increased job opportunities. That stuff matters.