Peter Drysdale.
Australia and Japan need to reinvest in their 55-year-old bilateral trade agreement and deepen their economic ties if they are to gain from the Asian Century, a leading expert from ANU has warned. Delivering the keynote address at the 50th annual Australia-Japan Joint Business Conference, Professor Peter Drysdale from the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy said that Australia and Japan needed to take their long-standing relationship in new directions to help sustain and take advantage of the region's unprecedented economic growth. "Australia and Japan have achieved so much together through their economic relationship and also in our work building regional cooperation through APEC," said Professor Drysdale. "The relationship that has grown since the 1950s is one of the most remarkable diplomatic and political achievements in the past half century. It has been critical in building a vision and example for how the huge plurality of people in the Asia Pacific region might live on good terms and in prosperity. "We have been underutilising the assets of our relationship in recent years. Inter-ministerial meetings have fallen into disuse. Our free trade agreement (FTA) needs to be dealt with promptly and clear the way for credible Japanese economic diplomatic initiatives.
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