NSW looks to ASEAN in education and produce trade push

NSW will target expanding the ASEAN presence of its universities, more Australian wines across the region’s restaurants, and ensure that the state’s produce has pride of place across Southeast Asia’s supermarket shelves.

A tuktuk driver outside a Tesco Lotus supermarket, since rebranded as Lotus’s, Thailand’s largest hypermarket chain. Picture: AFP

NSW will move to expand the ASEAN presence of its universities, add more Australian wines across the region’s restaurants, and ensure the state’s “premium” produce has pride of place on the shelves of Thailand’s largest supermarket chain in the government’s first overseas trade mission.

Trade Minister Anoulack Chanthivong will lead a delegation to Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore, the first of the Minns government, and an acceleration of tis eagerness to unlock the “economic opportunity” of its ­relationship with ASEAN’s ­markets.

“The region is the fifth-largest economy in the world and by 2040 it’ll have a consumer base 10-times bigger than Australia’s – it’s an economic opportunity NSW cannot miss,” Mr Chanthivong said.

High-level meetings will be held with the government’s trade counterparts and private business, and although distribution lines and med tech will be a focus, expanding the ASEAN footprint of NSW-based universities will be a key point of discussions. “A number of our uni­versities are doing ‘onshore models’ (in ASEAN), with the highest quality tertiary education the state can provide,” Mr Chanthivong said.

The University of Sydney has a Vietnam-based network, Western Sydney University has a campus there, and UTS recently extended its partnership with the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, a number that the government hopes will continue to grow.

Talks will also be held with the Charoen Pokphand group, Thailand’s largest private company, which operates the country’s 12,000 7-Eleven stores, supermarket giant Lotus’s, the local arm of cash and carry warehouse Makro, and across 20 different ASEAN markets.

“It’ll be about making sure that our agriculture, and food and beverage base, has access to Thailand’s growing and premium supermarkets,” Mr Chanthivong said.

NSW Trade Minister Anoulack Chanthivong. Picture: Nikki Short

“It (CP Group) is one of the biggest (conglomerates) in the world, and I want to make sure NSW products, food and agrifood is top shelf, eye-level, in their supermarkets.”

Although China has since broken down the Covid-induced trade barriers to Australia’s wine industry, Mr Chanthivong will push that more bottles from the likes of Hunter and Mudgee get a foothold in Southeast Asia.

“We’ll be pushing our wine industry, trying to expand and influence consumer taste with NSW products before other markets get in before us,” he said.

“You’ve got to be first, persistent, but showcase the premium value that we produce in NSW.”

Mr Chanthivong, who is of Laotian descent, said his heritage was not an “insignificant factor” in the state’s push towards ASEAN. “The Trade Minister of NSW is of Southeast Asian heritage, who is multilingual and understands the culture,” he said.

“That’s a message to our trading partners that NSW is interested, wants to engage, and wants to establish mutually beneficial outcomes.”

ASEAN was the state’s third-largest two-way trading partner, worth a combined $36.4bn, in 2022-23. Two-way trade in goods between ASEAN and NSW has been growing year on year by about 13 per cent while the state is home to about 35 per cent of Australia’s residents who were born in the region.