Nearby islanders have long traded with Australia’s indigenous peoples. Most history books count the Dutchman Willem Janszoon as being the first documented contact in 1606 when he sailed along the western side of Cape York Peninsula. And there is strong evidence that the Chinese discovered Australia and traded with Aboriginal peoples before 1432, especially during the voyages of Admiral Zheng He. All these before Captain Cook even set foot in Botany Bay in 1788.

Now in the 21^st century, modern Australia is an international success story with an amalgam of diverse peoples and cultures from across the world. Whether they have just immigrated, or are descendants of immigrants, it is now hard to imagine Australians without our cosmopolitan mix.

Unfortunately, due to a minority of anecdotal incidents, Australia’s multiculturalism is often tested and criticised as one plausible cause for disharmony. It is after all our human nature to notice the small singular stains on what is a spectacular canvas.

Perhaps we under-appreciate the fact that the prisms through which we see the world have been improved because of our successive centuries of multiculturalism. Yes, one could say that Aboriginal peoples are multicultural too because there used to be over 400 Aboriginal “peoples” and “countries”. It is our multiculturalism that enables us to better connect with each other and peoples from across the world, and to draw out from each other our best.

Far from suggesting Australians practice “Kum-Bah-Yah” every day, our often diverse workplaces and neighbourhoods demonstrate our continual deepening of understanding of each other and are the better for it. Mindful of the biblical account of the Tower of Babel, while the central message is about the wrongful defiance of God by man, it is also an instructional tale of the unitedness of people when they understood each other through their unity of one language, in contrast to the disharmony of people when they have multiple languages and hence not able to understanding each other’s speech.

Modern and diverse Australia has given rise to our unitedness and even greater understanding of our world. Our multicultural experiences give Australians the articulation and appreciation of foreign perspectives and subtleties. It is little wonder that we unconsciously draw from the wisdoms of the world for the benefit of our Australian nation, which tend to give us a natural advantage over mono-cultural nations.

In leveraging our multicultural leadership, with collaboration between Parramatta City Council and Western Sydney’s Asia Business Connection, and on the invitation of China’s Consul-General His Excellency Hu Shan, a trade delegation visited China’s City of Yiwu. “Yiwu?” I hear you ask. Yes, Yiwu happens to be China’s and also the world’s largest commodities market. A city of 2 million people, 300 km south of Shanghai, and the flagship of China’s market economy. Already internationally renowned in non-Asian nations like Germany, Italy, Canada, USA and Saudi Arabia, with over 13,000 foreign businessmen from over 100 countries and regions, over 2,500 representative offices in Yiwu, and exporting 520,000 containers of goods to over 215 countries every year. These non-Chinese businesses source (commodities) products from socks, shirts, ornaments, furniture, thermos flasks, to even Christmas decorations for their respective homelands outside of China. China’s special relationship with Western Sydney of also 2 million people, presents tremendous opportunities for both sides, while avoiding the blind spot crowded competition in obvious cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In context, since 2007, China has surpassed Japan and the USA as Australia’s largest trading partner. With China’s 2010 second quarter gross domestic product increased by 10.3%, retail sales increased by up to 17% even during the global financial crisis, an anticipated 350 million Chinese citizens internally migrating to urban areas, 1 million kilometres of new roads to be built, 28,000 km of new metro rail, 40 billion square metres of new floor space, 5 million new buildings, 97 new airports, and 10% of all new commercial passenger airplanes sold to China, her domestic market continues to attract western entrepreneurial interests, including Australia.

Local government has evolved and is a natural economic catalyst. By leveraging the latent trust between governments of Australia and those overseas, Australian businesses have the potential to identify new international opportunities that may otherwise be difficult.

In the recent successful experience of the 2010 Western Sydney Trade Delegation to China, while the importing of Chinese products into Australia was beneficial to some Australian businesses, there was also a range of Australian businesses that benefitted from the government-to-government introductions. Those Western Sydney businesses included financiers, architects, bankers, vocational trainers, recyclers, and lawyers. China’s Yiwu presented opportunities for Western Sydney businesses in terms of trade financing, cross-national funds transfer and management, the teaching of occupational health and safety and western style of decision making and creating consensus, garbage recycling and patent applications and cross-national contract making.

International economic collaborations are the 21^st century’s answer to sister-city relationships. There are now a growing number of Australian governments consciously leveraging our inherent multicultural talent to help us connect with the rest of the world, especially with international trade. After all, successful societies focus on the common bonds that unite rather than the differences that divide. And multiculturalism should not displace or downplay the many strengths and advantages of our Australian culture, including openness, equality, enterprise, freedom. Most importantly, such collaborations with Australian leadership from diverse backgrounds help identify and facilitate the win-win and bilateral opportunities for Australia and the rest of the world.

Chiang Lim is only the second Chinese-Australian to have been elected a Deputy Lord Mayor in New South Wales history. Born in Singapore, he is a naturalised Australian by descent.  He is also a board member of Western Sydney’s Asia Business Connection, fully funded for his travel to China, and gained no commercial or financial benefit from his Western Sydney Trade Delegation to China.

Click here for a sample of photos of the Western Sydney Trade Delegation to China