For the NT to compete in the fastest growing economic sector of the globe we need to work with the new standards of cross-border trade and trade settlement that are overwhelmingly being developed by China. 

We are foolish if we expect our trade partners to accept Australian standards and approaches when they are incompatible with the new standards which are being adopted throughout the region. 

The Moore report provides the roadmap for Australia’s engagement with Asia. It has one glaring omission. 

The report makes just a passing reference to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It assumes, like the Australian media, that the Belt and Road Initiative is a failure and has disappeared. Nothing could be further from the truth and understanding this is part of the key to improving NT engagement with ASEAN. 

The BRI is not just about roads and bridges. It incorporates the trade environment, payment systems, and investment. The key feature is the BRI trade structure impact on the regulatory environment. Compliance improves logistics flows, reduces counter party risk and reduces foreign currency transaction costs. 

In terms of metaphysical infrastructure, it is proof of product authenticity and the chain of provenance to back up claims of clean and green. 

The capital infrastructure aspects impact on the NTs ability to attract investment. 

We may dismiss the BRI, but ASEAN does not. 

At the October ASEAN conference in Malaysia, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saw the fast train in Malaysia. Its construction, ticketing, management and operation are all derived from China and are part of the BRI framework. 

Your fast, efficient passage through Singapore immigration on arrival or departure is made possible by biometric face scanning that operates on standards developed under BRI. This was essential for Changi because it handles hundreds of different ethnicities each day and it could not afford to install a system like those developed in the US that have up to a 30% failure rate for Africans and Asians. 

We are naive if we think that only US-sourced software is safe and better than that developed elsewhere. We are worse than naive if we believe that our product and our services are automatically the best and so they will be eagerly accepted by customers in Asia and China. Overcoming that hubris is the first step in restoring the NT’s successful engagement with ASEAN markets. 

Yes, we do some great stuff but our competitors are now doing so much more great stuff. If our market participation is crippled by sanctions or fear of Chinese products, then we leave the field open to competitors. If we do not acknowledge their success in innovation and utilise it, then we cannot compete. 

Despite our proximity to Asia, our knowledge of Asia is both limited and filtered through increasingly outdated preconceptions. 

The NT public service program, Territory Asia Literacy Uplift, is a step in the right direction. Let me explain with some examples of misrepresentation or omission that distort our understanding of Asia and how the NT can benefit from greater engagement. 

The upgraded China-ASEAN FTA, announced in Kuala Lumpur but barely reported in Australia, commits to deeper digital and tech cooperation, including Chinese technical support and investment to strengthen cross-border digital infrastructure and cross-border electronic payment systems. 

If our NT products do not use or recognise the standards and processes that are increasingly being set by China and applied throughout ASEAN then we are at a disadvantage. 

What this standards acceptance means, for example, for the NT is that we could be using the Indonesian single window entry system for faster customs clearances. The system was partially designed in China, so perhaps that’s why Australia chose not to engage with it when we signed the free trade agreement with Indonesia. What it means is that Australian clearances go to the back of the line.

To succeed we need to see Asia as it is, not as we would like it to be. In the carefully staged photo of the Indonesian President on the phone congratulating Donald Trump, a copy of China Daily sits on his desk. At the ASEAN meeting in KL, Indonesia confirmed its purchase of Chinese fighter jets. Indonesia’s interests are not necessarily consistent with those of Australia.

This all means that the NT has to work harder to attract investment from Asia because many in ASEAN believe that if Hua Ren – Chinese people- not just mainland Chinese, are involved then it becomes more difficult to pass through FIRB processes. The head of the foreign investment division for China Construction Bank classes this as a significant risk which is why they now tend to direct investment away from Australia. DFAT tells us this is not the case, saying the approval rate is 95% but this doesn’t include proposals which never make it to FIRB.

I work with fund managers in Singapore and Malaysia, and they are increasingly reluctant to send Singaporean Chinese investors towards Australia. The recent addition of copper, lead and zinc to the strategic minerals list is also a disincentive to ASEAN investors because investment in these common resources attracts additional scrutiny and costs.

Investors in long term projects are concerned about the increase in Australian sovereign risk. This is
the risk that policy changes made in the future will destroy long-term investments and destroy the capital already committed to that investment. Former Treasury head, Ken Henry has noted that global investors now see this as a sovereign risk associated with renewable energy investments in Australia.

Forced divestment is not an attractive outcome for any investor and its of increasing concern for Hua Ren investors in Asia. This is generally a national policy but the NT gains points when it speaks out in support of investment certainty.

The NT Government can improve this investment flow with a willingness to assist and support investors navigating the FIRB process. Western Australia and Victoria provide this type of support.

The way we think of ourselves in Asia is not always the way Asia thinks of us. We are not gifting progress to less developed countries. Despite our claims, we do not always have best-in- the-world products.

When you claim groundbreaking or world’s best, make sure your claim is accurate.

For NT exporters, the nature of competition has changed, the quality of competition has changed, the efficiency of trade settlement has changed and like it or not, we have to change the way we approach ASEAN and China if we want to succeed and expand the NT export economy.

For those seeking to attract investment it is an uphill battle as China and Hua Ren investment is constantly demonised in the Australian media. As Western Australia has shown, there are advantages in pushing back against the growth of this sovereign risk.

The opportunities are there for those who can catch up and accept the driving force in the new playing field. The NT can engage more effectively with Asia and that inevitably also means China.