Culture shock should be seen as a bonus not a barrier

According to Kimberley’s Dr Xian Tao there are doubts and uncertainties within business about the fact that China’s culture, history, political and regulatory environments influence how they conduct their business affairs.
“The domestic resources sector, particularly the juniors, needs to take some heart from the fact both countries have gone to pains in recent weeks to stress the importance they see in the relationship not only on a bilateral basis, but for a strategic longer term,” Dr Tao said.
“Ignorance, however, should not be used an excuse for failure to secure a Sino joint venture deal.
“There has been a litany of resources players which have failed to secure a Chinese partner due primarily to a clear lack of understanding of the country and culture into which they ventured.”
She believes that such situations have on occasion reached crisis level, to the point of damaging long-term business interests and strategies for both Australia and China.
“Chinese do conduct business in a different way but not at the expense of the desire for a mutually beneficial outcome - a factor that has been overlooked of late.
“From our experience, the key to understanding the Chinese business climate and to successfully negotiate and secure a Sino-backed joint venture, is to make a better effort to appreciate the history, culture, attitude and philosophy behind those ways of why and how Chinese businesspeople assess and then conclude a partnership deal.”
Dr Tao said Australian miners and explorers also needed to appreciate that despite its 5,000 years of history, China is in real terms, a developing and young country with a barely 60-year old modern political, economic and legal system.
“The Chinese Government is helping drive continuous improvements and reforms in bilateral trade and significant changes are evident,” Dr Tao said.
“This is creating opportunities, not barriers, to Australia’s resources participants and I can only encourage those within local exploration and mining ranks who hold possibly outdated views and attitudes towards China, to upgrade their awareness.”
She said joint venture partnerships were not a one way street and there remained an obligation on Chinese players in resources to reciprocate and learn to do business in Australia in an environment that better appreciated the Australian way of concluding transactions.