2019 WA-ASEAN Trade and Investment Dialogue
The WA-ASEAN Trade and Investment Dialogue 2019 explored how connectivity can support deeper economic ties between Western Australia and its regional neighbours. Building on the inaugural dialogue in November 2018, this year aimed to understand the current patterns and future opportunities for economic connectivity between Western Australia and Southeast Asia. The dialogue brought together leading representatives from government, business and youth in WA and its key Southeast Asian economic partners to promote the economic capacities of Western Australia, and discuss the benefits and opportunities from deeper connectivity with Southeast Asia.
There is significant potential for new economic partnerships between Western Australia and Southeast Asia. Shared geography links the state its northern neighbours, while economic complementarity supports economic partnerships. There are particular opportunities in services and technology sectors where Western Australian capabilities are well matched to regional needs. However, the potential for these trade and investment partnerships requires strong connectivity between the state and its Southeast Asian neighbours. Connectivity is central to this capacity-building endeavour. Defined as the strength of international ties – across infrastructural, technological and people-to-people (P2P) domains – connectivity is a key enabler of economic links.
Welcome
I look forward to welcoming international and local delegates to the 2019 WA-ASEAN Trade and Investment Dialogue.
There is no better place than Perth, Western Australia to hold this vitally important dialogue. Through our recently launched Western Australian Asian Engagement Strategy 2019-2030, the McGowan Government has a plan to enhance our longstanding connection with the rich and diverse people, cultures and markets of the world’s most exciting region.
The Western Australian Government is forging stronger links and deeper connections across Asia and ASEAN is critical to establishing diverse trade and investment opportunities.
In this context, I am keen to hear delegates’ views on practical strategies to increase our connections, boost trade and grow the region’s prosperity.
Please do also take time to enjoy the variety of experiences that our international, vibrant city and surrounding areas provide.
Hon Peter Tinley AM MLA
Minister for Housing, Veterans Issues, Youth, Asian Engagement
Gallery
Perth USAsia, WA-ASEAN Trade & Investment Dialogue, 2019. Photo credit & copyright ©: ‘Csfoto – Christian Sprogoe photographer’
Speakers
Larissa Taylor
Larissa Taylor started her career in the corporate sector in management consulting with McKinsey & Co, moved to a consulting & research role with Dutch agribusiness bank Rabobank, and subsequently worked in executive development, business development and community development roles with the UWA Business School and BHP Billiton Iron Ore before joining the Grain Industry Association of WA in 2014.Originally from a farming community in the Great Southern of WA, Larissa has lived and worked in Canberra, Sydney, Houston, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Perth.
Larissa holds a BA (Asian Studies) from ANU, an MBA from the AGSM, UNSW, is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Australia Indonesia Business Council.
Dr Hassan Wirajuda
H.E. Dr. Nur Hassan Wirajuda is a co-founder of the Indonesia School of Government and Public Policy. He served as Indonesia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2001 and 2009, and initiated the Bali Democratic Forum and its implementing agency, the Institute for Peace and Democracy. A lawyer by training and a diplomat by profession, Dr. Wirajuda has helped to facilitate a number of regional and national peace initiatives, initiating the establishment of the Indonesian Commission of Human Rights.
Tom Goerke
As the lead for Cisco’s Australian Innovation Centres, Tom Goerke manages all activities for the centres in Australia. The centre’s focus is accelerating opportunities, deepening relationships, and fostering innovation in the areas of digital transformation and IoT including rapid prototyping. The Australian centres in Perth and Sydney are specifically tasked to work with Australian companies, entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs to take an accelerated approach to digital transformation and help organizations improve business outcomes by integrating, creating, testing and validating technology solutions.
Prior to assuming his current position in January 2016, Mr. Goerke was a Business Development Manager at Cisco for eleven years focused on development of innovative solutions within the Service Provider market. Previously to Cisco he held Business Development roles with THISS Technologies, a startup developing satellite communications service provider which he co-founded. Earlier in his career, he held senior management positions with ICO Global Communications and Inmarsat in London and UniSA and Microbyte in Adelaide.
Mr. Goerke holds multiple patents in the fields of Radio and Web and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications from Western Australia’s Curtin University. Mr. Goerke has over 30 years of experience in ICT and has primarily focused on the commercial benefits of applying innovative technology.
Stephen Skulley
Stephen Skulley recently joined the Australian Trade & Investment Commission (Austrade) and will shortly take up his position in Singapore. He has been based in Singapore for 5 years, initially as Lloyds Bank CEO, Country Manager and Regional Corporate Banking Head and most recently consulting to scaling-up digital technology companies. In total, he worked in the global banking sector for over 20 years in London, Frankfurt, Manila, Sydney and Singapore with Lloyds Bank and Citigroup.
Stephen holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Western Australia, a Master of Engineering from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and an MBA from IMD. He is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors and the Singapore Fintech Association.
Redza Shahid
Redza Shahid is the CEO and Co-founder of Grub Cycle, He has led Grub Cycle in reducing more than 10,000 kgs of food from being wasted by selling edible surplus food at bargain price. Prior to Grub Cycle, Redza’s accounting background has landed him a 3 years stint at WorleyParsons focusing on finance in the oil & gas industry before eventually using his expertise with numbers to help startups at an Angel Investment company that looks for promising startups to invest in. Armed with 2 years of startup investment experience, he decided to join an accelerator program to validate his idea and officially launched Grub Cycle after 2 months. He believes in building a sustainable social enterprise ecosystem supported by an active community. Redza speaks at various social enterprise events and participated in multiple global competition such as Pitch at Palace Commonwealth edition which he was pitching in front of Duke of York in 2018.
Eduardo Pedrosa
Mr Eduardo Pedrosa is the Secretary General of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) based in Singapore. He leads the Council’s flagship annual report, the State of the Region. He has written extensively on regional issues including: An APEC Trade Agenda: The Political Economy of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific; Towards Balanced and Sustainable Growth Strategies for Post Crisis Asia and Towards an ASEAN Economic Community: Matching the Hardware with the Operating System. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report as well as their Ecommerce Expert Group. Before moving to Singapore, he was the coordinator of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Southeast Asia cooperation program based in Manila and the co-editor of its journal on regional economics and politics. He has also worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Philippine government. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics.
Professor L. Gordon Flake
Professor L. Gordon Flake is the founding CEO of the Perth USAsia Centre, a position he assumed in January of 2014. He was previously Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, a Senior Fellow and Associate Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at The Atlantic Council of the United States and prior to that Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America.
Dr Jeffrey Wilson
Dr Jeffrey Wilson is the Research Director at the Perth USAsia Centre. He provides leadership and strategic direction in developing the Centre’s research program across its publications, policy and dialogue activities.
Dr Wilson specialises in the regional economic integration of the Indo-Pacific. He has particular expertise in the politics of trade agreements, regional economic institutions, and Australia’s economic ties with Asia. He has been featured in local and international media outlets, contributed to a range of track two dialogues between Australia and key regional partners, and supported policy development through consultancy, publication and advisory work.
Cal Foulner
Cal Foulner is Co-founder and Director of Beanstalk AgTech, a venture building business operating at the intersection of the fast-evolving agtech and agriculture sectors in Australia and across Asia. Foulner is based in Australia where he and his team work to support the commercialisation of agtech startups in Australia and Asia. By having this exposure, his team helps farmers and agribusinesses innovate by scouting best-in-class technology and facilitating tech trialling and adoption.
Foulner has a background in business and has extended this to deep expertise in social enterprise. He found his passion for working on community agriculture projects across South East Asia through an organisation he founded at the age of 21, Upside Nepal. As a passionate advocate for tech-for good, Foulner was also previously the Australian Community Manager of Random Hacks of Kindness, a not-for-profit organisation that coordinates a community of 1,000 technologists to solve challenges for charities through a hackathon model.
Nathanael Foo
Nathanael Foo has had quite the eclectic career working in the social innovation and social enterprise spaces. Using his skillsets in social impact evaluation, business strategy and human-centred design, Nathanael lives out his passions by building solutions that tackle the unequal access to opportunities that are still prevalent in this world. His experiences has taken him from:Working in International Projects and Impact Evaluation in San Francisco,
Presenting a keynote speech on slavery eradication through business supply chains on behalf of the EU Commission,
To collaborating with some of Copenhagen’s largest philanthropists in establishing one of Denmark’s first impact investment firms.
Nathanael is currently the Founder and Managing Director of threeonesix – Australia’s only specialty tea company that does not exploit people or planet. threeonesix enters long-term direct trade partnerships with farmers from regions around the world where poverty and exploitation are prevalent. Through maintaining exploitation-free supply chains, threeonesix creates safe and dignified work opportunities and meaningful options from vulnerability.
Dr Jemma Green
After completing a degree in finance, Jemma started her career in banking at J.P. Morgan in London. While there, she saw first hand the dilemmas and problems that came with bringing corporate social responsibility to the business world. Determined to find a way to fix what she felt was a broken system, Green decided to pursue a doctorate at Curtin University. She was awarded her PhD in 2015 for work on disruption in the electricity market, working also as a research fellow. This work turned out to be the perfect segue to starting up her own business, a blockchain powered peer to peer energy and carbon credit trading platform called Power Ledger. The company is three years old and has projects in the US, Japan, Europe, Thailand and Australia.
Jemma is also an expert in residence at Curtin University helping with commercialisation of technology within the university and the Western Australian market and serves on the board of Water Corporation. Somehow she also found time to become Deputy Lord Mayor of Perth and a mother of two children. Jemma helped set up Australia’s first fossil fuel free superannuation fund and has sat on numerous boards championing sustainable business. She gives regular talks on technology and leadership in business and recently received the EY Fintech Entrepreneur of the Year award. She lives in Perth and invents Italian style dishes for relaxation.
Justin Mcardle
Justin is a co-founder and Executive Producer of Frame VR (www.framevr.co): a digital studio with a focus on Mixed Reality and Virtual Reality platforms.
As an Executive Producer and VR thought leader with over 20 years experience in creating award winning projects in traditional and immersive media. Founder of Frame XR Labs, an immersive media production company working across a wide spectrum of XR projects including: entertainment, embodied learning and visualisation.
Danny Ardianto
Danny is a Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager at Google Indonesia. He leads Google’s efforts in unlocking the potential growth of Indonesia and its leadership in ASEAN in the area of digital economy through collaborative work and thought leadership in the area of trade, tax, commerce, developers, cloud technology, future of work, startups, and digital finance. Prior to Google, he led the provision of government support for public-private partnership projects in water, health, and transport infrastructure working across the Indonesian local and central governments. He has 15+ years of experience navigating through complex challenges in regulatory environment and digital transformation through his work with the Finance Ministry. Danny is a Chartered Accountant and holds a PhD in Information Systems from Monash University, Australia.
Dr Kate Brooks
Dr Kate Brooks is the newly appointed Director of MTPConnect Stakeholder Engagement WA and leads the MTPConnect WA Life Sciences Innovation Hub, supported through the Federal and WA Governments and UWA. Her career has spanned a range of leadership roles in research (astrophysics), remote operations, commercialisation and corporate innovation. Her previous roles have included Innovation Manager for Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy and Fertilisers and Deputy Head of Operations for CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility. Kate is an experienced speaker/facilitator and is passionate about growing the Perth innovation ecosystem. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for StartupWA.
Marina Kusumawardhani
Marina Kusumawardhani is an Ash Center Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. She has been working for the Indonesian President Joko Widodo in the last two Presidential campaign in 2014 and 2019, as well as for the past three years in his social media strategist/data analytics team. Marina co-founded “Code4Nation”, an Indonesian ICT association whose projects included organizing the world’s largest hackathons and app/coding training in rural Indonesia. She also previously served as coordinator of the National Taskforce on Inclusive Innovation at the Ministry for Economic Affairs, as well as adviser to the Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil on the city’s infrastructure and international relations. She also serves as a consultant for various multilateral organizations (UNIDO, UNESCO and ADB). She obtained her bachelor’s degree from Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia and a master’s degree from TU Vienna in Austria with 1st honor distinction, both in industrial engineering. Marina is also a national bestselling author in Indonesia, having published two acclaimed travel memoirs.
Rebecca Brown
Ms Rebecca Brown commenced as Director General of the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation in September 2018. In this role, she is also Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Western Australia.
Ms Brown has worked across both Federal and State government agencies in a range of senior roles across revenue and economic policy, social policy, resourcing and performance. Most recently she oversaw the reform of the WA health system, including the establishment of a new governance model and the development of the Health Services Act 2016.
Ms Brown has held senior positions at both WA Treasury and the WA Department of the Premier and Cabinet, where she oversaw key reforms between the public and non-profit community sectors. Ms Brown has an Honours Degree in Economics from the University of Western Australia and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Dr Minh Thu To
Dr. Minh Thu To is a Deputy Director General of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies (IFPSS), the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV). Before joining the DAV in 2010, she was an expert at the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam (MOFA).
At the IFPSS, she was in charge of non-traditional security and development issues. She also serves as country coordinator for several academic networks, including the Network of East Asia Think tanks, Network of ASEAN-China Think tanks, Global Center for Mekong Studies. During 7/2013-7/2016, Dr. To was a fellow researcher at the Mitsubishi Research Institute, Tokyo, focusing on issues relating to ASEAN economies, ASEAN Economic Community and assessment of TPP.
Dr. To got her B.A. in International Economics from the Hanoi Foreign Trade University in 1997 and her MBS in International Economics from Massey University (New Zealand) in 2000. She earned her Ph.D of Public Policy in Economics from the Osaka University (Japan) in 2010. Her research interests include regional trade arrangement, general equilibrium model of trade, Vietnam’s economic integration and ASEAN economic integration.
Greg Earl
Greg Earl is a Sydney-based editor and writer and an Australia-ASEAN Council board member. His interest in Southeast Asia began as a high school student studying Indonesian followed by a year as an exchange student in the Philippines. He set up The Australian Financial Review Southeast Asia office – based in Jakarta – in 1994 and was an advisory council member of the ANU Indonesia Project.
He is the economic diplomacy columnist for the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter; editor of Briefing Monthly, published by Asia Society Australia; an AFR contributor and is writing a book about Australian business in Asia. He was the former deputy editor, opinion editor and Asia Pacific editor at the AFR and a reporter based in Tokyo and New York, as well as Jakarta, for ten years.
Tamerlaine Beasley
Tamerlaine Beasley is an expert presenter and facilitator who enables effective collaboration and communication in diverse and global workplaces. She is a member of the Board of the Australia-ASEAN Council for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and founder and Managing Director of Beasley Intercultural, Australia’s premier cross-cultural training and consultancy company.
Tamerlaine leads a team of consultants working across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region for multinational corporate clients, international NGO’s, and Federal and State Governments. Tamerlaine’s keynote presentations, advisory services and training programs are described by clients as ‘transformational’ and ‘game changing’. Examples of her work include: coaching and advising business leaders in Australia and Asia; working with global teams to optimise performance; developing a framework for training and capability building through international partnerships for APEC; building local staff capacity at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific; leading the development of diversity and inclusion programs for the Australian Public Service Commission and the Department of Defence.
Tamerlaine speaks Thai and has studied Lao and Bahasa Indonesia. She has studied Asian Studies at the ANU, International Business at Penn State University and Thai at Chulalongkorn in Thailand. She lectures at Australia’s leading Universities with a focus on global and cross-cultural leadership and communication. Tamerlaine is also a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Dr Imran Lum
Imran is a Director of Islamic Finance at the National Australia Bank (NAB). His primary responsibility is building the Islamic finance capability for bank’s Corporate and Institutional Banking division. At NAB, he successfully transacted around ~$1bln in Islamic transactions via developing a Sukuk bond trading platform, an Islamic finance book and an Islamic FX Forward offering. Prior to this, Imran was the national Product Manager for NAB’s multi-award-winning Microenterprise Loans.
Imran serves on the Board of the Australia-ASEAN Council, DFAT and he is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute for Religion, Politics and Society at the Australian Catholic University. Imran was ranked in the top 500 who make the Islamic Economy by ISLAMICA 500 (2017-2019) and was the 2019 Corporate Winner for the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians. Imran has an undergraduate degree from the University of Adelaide, a Masters in Islamic Studies from the University of New England and a PhD in Islamic Studies from the Melbourne Law School and the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne.
Steve Clarke
Steve Clarke is the Managing Director of Cell Media Australia. Established in 2000, Cell media has been a leader in innovative, award-winning digital learning, specialising in site-safety awareness and training for the mining, oil, gas and construction industries. With design and management offices in Perth, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Cell Media has a long-established presence in Australia, several ASEAN-region countries, the US, South America and Canada.
Entering the multimedia training industry as a pioneer, Steve has qualifications in Marketing and Workplace Training and Assessment.
Kyle Springer
Kyle Springer is Senior Analyst at the Perth USAsia Centre. In 2018 he co-authored a chapter with Dr Jeffrey Wilson on Australia-Indonesia economic ties in Expanding Horizons: Indonesia’s Regional Engagement in the Indo-Pacific Era. Kyle also authored “Vietnam as a G20 country: towards an Australia-Vietnam economic partnership,” part of Perth USAsia Centre’s Indo-Pacific Insights Series. He has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Western Australia (2012) and a Bachelor of Science from the California State University (2008).
Ingrid Cumming
Ingrid Cumming is a Whadjuk Noongar woman from Fremantle, Western Australia. A graduate of Murdoch University and Melbourne Business School, she has during her career, presented and published articles internationally including one with the United Nations Women Leaders Collective in Israel, represented Indigenous Australian Business in the US, presented at TedXPerth 2014 and is internationally recognized for her work in leadership, Indigenous knowledge, research and cultural development. Her business Kart Koort Wiern has won and been a finalist for various awards including Business News 40 under 40, NAIDOC Perth, Belmont Small Business Awards for her work as an entrepreneur.
After a successful 8 years in business, Ingrid decided to take on a role in local government as the Community Engagement Specialist at the City of Canning, in which she led the development of the cities Community Engagement Framework. Last year she was promoted to Community Outreach Project Lead, where she leads a range of community development and engagement initiatives on behalf of the city. Her commitment and passion for her community, leadership, youth, and reconciliation is the driver behind the work.
Aukrit Unahalekhaka
Aukrit Unahalekhaka is the Co-founder/CEO (Thailand) of Ricult, a venture-backed social enterprise that leverages machine learning and satellite imagery to help farmers in Thailand and Pakistan increase farm productivity and access affordable loan, helping lift them out of poverty. Ricult has been named the best Social Enterprise in Southeast Asia and Oceania in the Global Social Venture Competition, won the Fintech Disrupt Challenge organized by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and awarded Innovative Agribusiness by United Nations Industrial Developmental Organization. Aukrit received a joint master’s degree in engineering and management from MIT where he was a fellow at the MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. Prior to MIT, he was a consultant at Accenture in the Boston office and a software engineer at Cisco in Silicon Valley.
Hayley Winchcombe
Hayley founded the ASEAN-Australia Strategic Youth Partnership (AASYP) as a platform to inspire the energy, ideas and engagement of young people in strengthening ASEAN-Australia relations. In 2019, she launched the ASEAN Australia Young Leaders Forum (AAYLF) as the first online-offline programme to connect influential young leaders from across the relationship, to tackle the most pressing regional issues of today.
Yasmin Poole
Yasmin is currently the Youth Ambassador for Plan International. Before this, she was the Australian Youth Representative to APEC 2018 in Papua New Guinea and Delegate to the ASEAN-Australia Business Summit. She has interned across NGOs like Asialink, Asia Pacific Centre for R2P and ICAN. Yasmin was the youngest winner of the 2019 Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence. She is the youngest ever person to be named as one of the Top 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian Australians.
Erin Watson-Lynn
Erin Watson-Lynn is the Perth USAsia Centre’s Senior Fellow, where she develops high level content and leads a range of programs on Indo-Pacific issues. Erin has delivered Track I.5 and II dialogues and programs across the Indo-Pacific and has an established network across think tanks, academic, government and the media
Fuadi Pitsuwan
Fuadi is a co-founder of Beanspire Coffee, a developer and an exporter of specialty grade Thai coffee that focuses on quality and relationships at both ends of the supply chain. He also serves as President of Surin Pitsuwan Foundation, named after his late father Surin Pitsuwan, former ASEAN Secretary General. The Foundation aims to carry out his late father’s missions in the ASEAN region in three areas: education, diplomacy and human security. Since 2012, he has also served as a Member of the Advisory Board for Teach For Thailand. Additionally, Fuadi is a predoctoral fellow at Chiang Mai University’s School of Public Policy and currently a doctoral student at University of Oxford where his research focuses on the institutional design of military alliances. From 2008-2011, he was an associate at The Cohen Group, a DC-based strategic advisory firm, where he received a Rising Star award from US-ASEAN Business Council. He received his MPP from Harvard Kennedy School and received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.