SYDNEY, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Australia should collaborate better with China on key industries of shared interest to create a healthy bilateral relationship which will last into the future, entrepreneur and China expert Andrea Myles told Xinhua during a three-day business conference wrapping up on Thursday.
Myles is the founder of the China Australia Millennial Project (CAMP), which every year brings hundreds of young Australian and Chinese innovators together to create startup businesses -- giving her unique insight into the benefits and challenges of collaboration between the two countries.
Speaking from the three-day, CEBIT business and technology conference which wrapped up in Sydney on Thursday, Myles told Xinhua that while cross cultural collaboration is not always easy, by focussing on shared areas of interest, astounding progress can be made.
"There's always challenges when you enter a global relationship or a bilateral business relationship," Myles said.
Cultural, regulatory and governmental differences can sometimes create confusion in what people expect of one another, Myles explained.
"Understanding where the overlap is, that's the secret. We often focus on difference, but focusing on what those overlapping areas are, where we can collaborate, is really where we should focus our attention."
Tourism, education, aged care and premium retail products are all areas where Australia and China's interests collide, making them fertile ground for collaborative innovation.
It was this "gap in the market" which inspired Myles to found the CAMP initiative in order to motivate Australian and Chinese future business leaders to put not just their money, but their brains together.
"Often when we talk about Australia-China relations, we're talking about a transactional nature, we're talking about dollars," Myles said.
"And I thought, what we actually have an opportunity to do is to think about our brains, and to think about how we might collaborate together and co-design ideas together."
Aside from the business ideas and innovations eventuating from CAMP, participants gain a cross cultural perspective which in many cases has given them the confidence to engage more in bilateral business relationships.
As Australia develops into being a medium sized economy on the global scale, Myles says it should embrace the possibilities of partnering with China in these areas where each country has something unique to offer.
