West meets East’s Post

On July 7, CCG and the Foreign Affairs Office of Shandong Provincial People's Government will co-host the Huanghewan Youth Economic Forum, as the main forum of the Global Youth Conference 2023. The theme of this year’s forum is "New Industrialization Amidst Global Value Chain Reconstruction". aiming to understand the current trend of Global Value Chain reconstruction, grasp the new opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial change, explore how to further promote new industrialization and how to build a more equal, inclusive, green and constructive Global Value Chain through new platforms such as RCEP and CPTPP. 

If you hear an unusually high number of Australian accents around the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto this week, it's because the @Australia Canada Economic Leadership Forum is in town. Former Australian foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop is the co-chair of the Forum event taking place this week. Not surprisingly, as the article points out Ms. Bishop reminded us in an interview: "Australia and Canada have economies that mirror each other in so many ways," citing both countries' resource industries, including mining and energy. Having been involved in the Forum over the years, I know it seeks to identify areas where Australia and Canada can work more closely on matters such as trade and investment, global security, foreign policy, economic growth and education. It brings together more than 150 leaders from government and the public and private sectors. Australia and Canada are already members of the 12-country Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a trade pact that took effect in 2018, giving nations preferential access to each other's markets. Not surprisingly, this year's forum includes a panel on Australian and Canadian approaches to the Indo-Pacific region. The term Indo-Pacific reflects how many Western countries have reframed their engagement with the Asia Pacific region to build common cause between India and neighbours that have burgeoning middle-class populations and a shared interest in addressing China's growing influence in the region. Ms. Bishop, who served as Australia's foreign affairs minister between 2013 and 2018, is co-chairing the Toronto forum event with John Baird, Canada's foreign affairs minister between 2011 and 2015. The Toronto AusCan event marks a resumption of regular forum meetings since the pandemic began. The AusCan Forum last convened in February, 2020, in Melbourne.