Student trades ideas at Asia Pacific summit

Among the global thinkers converging on Brisbane this week will be Griffith University Master of International Business (MIB) student Maxime Kerault.

Hundreds of delegates from around the Asia Pacific will come to Brisbane to attend the 2007 Asia Pacific Cities Summit from August 31 — September 3.

Maxime was selected as ‘one of the 100 most outstanding young people’ who will participate as a youth delegate at the Summit which aims to further sustainable development practices in the region.

Maxime said he was looking forward to the Summit’s focus on sharing and building a vision of the future for the Asian Pacific region, and learning how to achieve sustainable development.

“A lot of people involved in the Summit have great ideas and the exchange, debate and discussion of those ideas will help create a common vision of the future,” Maxime said.

“It’s a priceless goal to increase the exchange and cooperation between the countries in order to achieve sustainable development.”

Maxime said although the Summit hadn’t yet commenced, it had already expanded his thinking and given him the opportunity to network.

“An internet forum has been established for the youth delegates and we are starting to get to know each other,” Maxime said.

“We have been selected from a wide range of countries within the Asian Pacific region, and are already exchanging ideas and conversing about different kind of topics. I’m looking forward to the Summit, but I have already received a lot from meeting some amazing young people online.”

Maxime said as a global citizen there were some concerns that couldn’t be ignored.

“It should be everybody’s concern to take an active role in today’s debate in order to improve our future and create a common vision of our future cities,” Maxime said.

Since completing his MIB a few months ago, the French international student has been working with Austrade, where he completed an internship while studying. It was through the internship he secured a temporary position as an Export Advisor.

“I think Trade is one of the best ways to strengthen the relationship between the countries. Successful exporters are the ones who show a strong willingness to understand the culture of their partner, and this is especially true when it comes to Asia Pacific areas,” Maxime said.

“International trade is also a strong engine for development and the striking examples of countries such as Japan, China, Korea and more recently Vietnam are the excellent illustration of this statement.

“One of the major challenges of the 21st century will be to integrate more countries into this process of international trade wealth creation and thus help to fight against poverty.”

The Summit is an initiative of the Brisbane City Council and has been held biennially since 1999, with the host city rotating between Brisbane and bidding cities in the Asia Pacific region. This is the first time a separate youth forum has been held.