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Description
IN the face of a chronic skills shortage, Australian agriculture needs its own “Colombo Plan”. The launch of the New Colombo Plan by the Federal Government this year is aimed at supporting Australian undergraduates to acquire cross-cultural competencies via study in Asia. But the Colombo Plan for agriculture needs to work in reverse order: we need to encourage students from Asia to study agriculture here. The original Colombo Plan in the 1950s benefited over 20,000 Asian students with their studies in Australia. The Colombo Plan for agriculture can leverage off the established footprints the education sector has, driving interest from Asia. These new migrants will be able to apply agricultural knowledge here or in Asia, exerting quasi-ambassador roles for the industry. Migrants will help alleviate labour shortages while planting seeds for stronger trade relationships. Keynote speaker of the 2016 Australian Grains Industry Conference Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder recently tipped a golden era for Australian agriculture. But, for this to happen, investing in human capital is every bit as important as improvements in productivity. An overhaul of immigration policy saw the Howard government implement a “skilled migration” scheme. The Federal Government has since added 40 agriculture-related professions to the “skilled occupation list”, including livestock farmers and workers. State Governments, including South Australia, have incorporated this in a “state-nominated occupations” list. Having arrived as an overseas student in 1997, I was keen to stay as a “skilled migrant” following the completion of postgraduate studies. Since then, skilled migration has grown rapidly, bringing in vast economic benefits. Today, the education sector is Australia’s second-largest exporter. However, this encouraging news is not well known in the industry. We need to capitalise on this opportunity and turbo-charge our agricultural trade relationships with Asia. Blackmores and Bellamy’s are two examples of companies that benefited from the entrepreneurship of “daigou” shoppers, migrants who buy products here to send back to Asia. The same can be done for agriculture products and services. The Asia journey for NAB is now decades old, and we’ve had a dedicated Agribusiness Asia Desk for three years. We recruit agricultural graduates several times a year and now encourage them to acquire a second language. We believe cross-culture awareness and Asian capability, acquired by either home-grown students or migrants, will help our clients and the industry embrace further growth and export opportunities in Asia.
Keywords
students, Colombo Plan, education, migrants, labour shortage, skilled migration, immigration policy, federal government, Asia
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