A delegate perspective of the GAP Summit
More than 130 delegates attended the National Economic Review 2012 Global Access Partners Annual Growth Summit. Victor Perton shares his view of the day’s proceedings.
On Friday (14 September) I had the privilege to participate in the National Economic Review GAP Annual Growth Summit held in the NSW parliamentary chamber in Sydney.
I came away inspired and energised. It was a gathering of creative people looking to new opportunities through collaboration and support of innovation and new thinking.
Sessions like “Productivity, Public Value and Leadership” and “Restructuring the Australian Economy in the new Asian Century” were deeply engaged sessions led by fine speakers with fascinating contributions from the Summit delegates.
The international guest speaker was Mr Israel Makov, chairman of the board of biomed companies Given Imaging, BioLight and Micromedic Technologies, recently appointed Chairman of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, and former Chairman and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Mr Makov is among Israel’s most respected corporate leaders, and is widely credited with Teva’s emergence as a global company and a world leader in generic pharmaceuticals.
In the Asian opportunities session, speakers included The Honourable Dr Craig Emerson MP, Minister for Trade and Competitiveness, who gave a very good presentation on the history of Australian engagement with Asia and his perceptions of China opportunities. Adaire Fox-Martin, Senior Vice President, Industry Business, Solutions Asia Pacific Japan, SAP. gave an engaging and brilliant speech on ASEAN opportunities and challenges for Australia. The session was superbly chaired by David Masters, Government Relationship Manager, HP Enterprise Services.
The session on “Productivity, Public Value and Leadership” was a highlight with brilliant insights from the chair and speakers and a deeply engaged and informative discussion. The Session Chair was Mr Rohan Mead, Managing Director, Australian Unity. Dr Ian Watt AO, Secretary, Australian Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet, was splendid with masterful and witty insights and engaged in a wonderful debate with the equally witty Professor Judith Sloan, Honorary Professorial Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. Senator Arthur Sinodinos AO, Chairman of the Coalition Deregulation Taskforce, gave great insights into the progress of more efficient public service decision making and painted an interesting canvas for the future. One phrase I noted from Arthur was “you need to incentivise public servants to deregulate.”
Mr Michael Pascoe , the Economics Reporter for Sky News gave an exuberant presentation on “Taming the China bears.” In a humorous way, he skewered the modern media tendency to over-emphasise the daily news and the talk about falling rates of growth rather than reporting the total picture.
I was impressed with the presentation by Andrew Gale, Chair, Working Group for the establishment of the Australian Society for Progress & Wellbeing, who outlined the opportunities in the pursuit of wellbeing.
The formal proceedings ended with a session chaired by The Honourable Philip Ruddock MP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary. The Keynote Speaker, Mr David Murray AO, Former Chairman, Future Fund, gave us a masterful summary of world banking conditions and the likely impact of global central banks with special emphasis on the Eurozone and likely outcomes of the continuing Greek debt crisis.
Architect of the Summits and Global Access Partners, Mr Peter Fritz AM , Group Managing Director, TCG Group. and Managing Director, Global Access Partners, made his usual optimistic and exuberant contribution throughout the proceedings.
Congratulations to Ms Catherine Fritz-Kalish, General Manager, Global Access Partners and her team including Lisa Middlebrook, Olga Bodrova and Helen Hull for a splendid event capping off three years of great achievement.
This article was first published on Victor’s blog Land of Opportunity and is republished on Open Forum with his kind permission.
Victor Perton is the Director of The Centre for Optimism and served for 18 years in the Victorian Parliament. He is a former Victorian Commissioner to the Americas and worked on the Australian G20 presidency.
