I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of these lands, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, and pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging.
And I want to thank Asialink for its invitation to speak with you today.
Asialink's work, fostering connections with Asia, improving our strategic and cultural literacy with Asia, encouraging familiarity and engagement with Asia. is more important than ever.
We know that connections and capability are fundamental to bringing about the investments and innovations that lead to prosperity.
Asia is undergoing one of the most profound economic transformations in modern history.
It's a shift driven by rapid industrialisation, rising prosperity and the emergence of hundreds of millions of new consumers.
For Australia, our opportunity is clear.
We can position ourselves to be part of this transformation.
And we can capture those opportunities it is creating across trade, investment and innovation.
We can see this in the Mekong Delta region.
For the past eight years, Australia's own SunRice Group, one of our major food exporters, has run a state-of-the-art rice processing mill in Dong Thap province.
Ahead of setting up the mill, SunRice drew on a range of connections in government and in business and other sectors to understand the regulatory environment.
It drew on contacts to understand the local market.
And it worked with the community to navigate obstacles and problems.
The results have been significant.
That mill now supports a sustainable supply chain in Vietnam.
It contributes to local employment.
It strengthens SunRice's global supply chains, chains which are spread across more than fifty global markets.
And, in recent years, with more partners like the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research, with scientists and growers in Vietnam, SunRice has used the mill as a way in which to innovate.
It's another way of improving food security, and doing so in a way that is sustainable, which creates prosperity and supports resilience.
None of this would have been possible, though, without partnerships and collaboration.
As leaders working across government, business, education, and other sectors, you all know how important partnerships and collaboration are.
But there are obstacles to partnerships increasing.
That geostrategic rivalries and technological competition are reshaping the world.
That economic concerns and security concerns, until now largely separate, are converging.
That the rules and norms that have underpinned global stability and prosperity for decades, and which facilitate co-operation and partnerships, are under strain.
For Australia, as a trading nation, where one in four jobs relies on trade, these developments are troubling.
And they demand that we respond with purpose.
Australia's economic ties with Asia remain fundamental to our prosperity.
In 2025, our goods and services exports to Asia reached $465.8 billion, accounting for more than 88 per cent of Australia's total global exports.
Even with year‑to‑year fluctuations, the scale of this engagement is clear.
Asia continues to be the engine of Australia's trade‑driven growth.
Within that broader picture, Southeast Asia stands out as a region of accelerating opportunity.
In 2025, Australia exported $79.4 billion in goods and services to Southeast Asia.
ASEAN economies alone absorb more than 16 per cent of all Australian exports to Asia.
This reflects a market shaped by rising prosperity, expanding industrial capacity and a rapidly growing middle class.
This is a region where demand for Australian education, food and agriculture, resources, and increasingly digital services continues to deepen.
Australia's investment footprint across Asia is just as significant as our export profile.
In 2025, Australian direct investment abroad in Asia totalled $39.3 billion.
It's on the back of the commercial ties and long‑term confidence Australian firms have in the region.
Asia continues to account for a substantial share of Australia's outward investment.
Southeast Asia, in particular, is emerging as a major destination for that investment.
In 2024, Australian direct investment into ASEAN economies reached $35.2 billion.
And even with some moderation in 2025, the underlying trend is clear.
Australian capital is increasingly flowing into Southeast Asia's growth sectors.
That includes clean energy, advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure and agribusiness.
With our businesses positioning for the region's long‑term expansion.
Foreign investment from Asia continues to play a major role here in Australia's economy, reaching $302.5 billion in 2025.
Investment from Southeast Asia continues to grow, rising to $66.9 billion.
It's been boosted by interest in Australia's clean energy transition, critical minerals, agribusiness and digital infrastructure.
Australia's economic engagement with Asia is deep, diverse and growing.
That's seen across exports, investment abroad, and investment into Australia.
But scale alone isn't enough.
It has to be matched with strategy.
The recent Trade 2040 Taskforce report sets out our response.
It starts with the recognition that our prosperity hinges on free and open markets.
That the rules and norms that have served us so well for years can continue to do so for years to come, provided we champion them and improve them.
And that being a trusted, reliable, and engaged partner, in our region and further abroad, is key to navigating the current turbulence and realising Australia's interests.
This is as true as it ever has been and it will grow only more evident in the years to come.
Because, as we look ahead, we can see that a profound change is underway.
It's a change we've long been aware of, a change that, in part, informed the establishment of Asialink, thirty years ago.
Because, directly to our north, economic growth across Southeast Asia is accelerating.
Fuelled by favourable demographic changes, by growing industrialisation and urbanisation and rising prosperity, that growth is compounding at around 4 per cent annually.
It's a change that will make Southeast Asia, as a bloc, the world's fourth largest economy within the next fifteen years.
With an enormous middle class of more than 200 million people and an appetite for products and commodities and services, particularly education, that Australia is well-positioned to offer and supply.
The benefit to us is there.
But only if we rise to the moment.
Only if we make a whole-of-nation effort to make the most of the opportunities before us now, and are positioned to seize those opportunities still to emerge.
That means continuing to boost trade with Southeast Asia and diversifying that trade.
It means lifting our investment in Southeast Asia and adopting a long-term outlook and working with partners to develop a nuanced understanding of the opportunities.
The Albanese Labor Government is doing its part.
We're working with the region to reform the WTO and safeguard the broader, open, rules-based global trading system.
And we are scrutinising our trade architecture across Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
From modernising our free trade agreements with Southeast Asian countries.
To reviewing our economic partnership with Indonesia.
From upgrading the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, to ensure it's relevant to business.
To lifting the ambition and reach of our Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, by expanding member partners.
We are also making sure to lift awareness, lighten unnecessary regulatory burdens, build capability for government and business to pursue opportunities, and deepen our investment – in the region, and particularly in Southeast Asia.
Later today, you'll hear from Nicholas Moore, the Government's Special Envoy for Southeast Asia who authored the Government's strategy to deepen our economic cooperation with the region.
Invested: Australia's Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 report sets out what's required.
And we already have a great example of this in Australian Development Investments (ADI).
ADI is Australia's flagship impact investment fund.
It aims its investments at opportunities that will accelerate the transition to a low carbon and climate-resilient economy.
And it's especially pleasing to announce its new investment of USD$13 million into Circulate Capital, in support of practical action on waste and recycling in Southeast Asia.
This is an investment that will help close the loop on product lifecycles, reducing waste and protecting resources.
It will create jobs.
It will deliver a lasting environmental benefit.
It will realise economic benefits for communities across Southeast Asia.
And as in the Mekong, it will add yet another case study of how trade and investment, partnerships and engagement, help bring about prosperity and resilience across our region.
Thank you.