Japanese Factories Rush to Gold Mining Town
- Links
with Japan's Silver Town help attract corporation -
Japan is Australia's largest export market. Australia's
merchandise exports to Japan account for around 20 per cent of
our total merchandise exports, making it our leading export nation.
Japan is the second largest source of merchandise imports for
Australia, importing 14% of our national total, second only to
America.
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Considering Japan's economic presence is important to Australia,
one can understand why so many local governments wish to utilize their
sister city relationships with Japan to boost local economies. Although
actual business talks or investments rarely take place, the friendly,
pro-Japanese business environment is impressing Japanese companies
with business operations in Australia. Today we look at how a sister
city relationship in Ballarat encouraged a Japanese factory to settle
there.
Ballarat, situated 110 kilometres west from Melbourne, is one of
Victoria's key regional centers with a population of approximately
80,000. Its industrial strengths today are its production and retail
industries, but historically the city developed with an influx of men
hoping to get rich quick when gold was discovered in 1951. Most of
the mines were expleted by the end of the 19th century but visitors
to the outdoor museum ‘Sovereign Hill' can now picture how lively
the Gold Rush days were, even try their own hand at gold-panning. Gold
still lies deep underground, but mining costs are quite high and are
not viable for today's gold prices.
The city of Inagawa grew around its silver mine, said to have provided
bronze for the Great Buddha Stature at the Todaiji Temple, Nara. Exchanges
between the cities of gold and silver started with a former citizen
of Ballarat who was living in Inakawa. Today exchange activities include
regular visits by junior and senior high school students to each city
and the correspondence with children's paintings. In 1998, a 13-piece
Genryu drum group from Inakawa visited Ballarat for the 10th anniversary
of their sister city agreement, thoroughly impressing audiences with
their dynamic performances.
The reception room in the Ballarat City Council Chambers was also
resplendently decorated with several Japanese commerative gifts including
kutayaki pottery lion statues, battledores and Japanese dolls, yet
still reminiscent of its gold rush days. The closeness between the
two cities was very apparent.
The Japan Community Committee was set up to organize exchange programs
with Inakawa. In 1995, when Japanese company Hakubaku sent a research
group visited Ballarat as part of their search for a factory in Australia,
this committee held a welcome reception for the researchers. The warm
friendship shown towards the researchers impressed them very impressed,
the other nominations for the factory site were abandoned and Ballarat
was chosen. The factory constructed in suburbs of Ballarat was officially
opened in March 1998, and employs 26 local staff. It produces dry noodles
predominantly for the Japanese market from organically cultivated wheat
grown in Victoria and New South Wales.
Sister city relationships aim to further international goodwill relations,
and are not necessarily always directly related to business opportunities.
However, in the case of Ballarat, international exchanges have formed
an ‘open-door community', and played an important role in the
advancement of our regional economy.
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