Today I would like to speak to you about what the Government is doing to pursue vigorously its efforts to free up further the international trading environment for the services sector. Our integrated trade strategy places renewed emphasis on bilateral market access issues in addition to ongoing discussions in regional and multilateral forums. The strategy is deliberately flexible, to pick up opportunities for Australian business wherever they arise. Services, as I noted earlier, now represent nearly a quarter of our exports. Moreover, services such as financial, telecommunications, air-freight, legal and accountancy, are also important 'drivers' of Australia's international competitiveness.
Services are, therefore, an increasingly important focus of our trade strategy.
We rely heavily, of course, on business input to establish our negotiating objectives. As well as working with the Australian Coalition of Service Industries, the Government has established industry consultation groups in financial, telecommunications, accountancy, legal and engineering services. As part of its renewed emphasis on bilateral approaches, the Government has established a Market Development Task Force aimed at coordinating government activity to target realistic priority markets for access, trade promotion and trade development. China has granted the ANZ a second branch licence to operate in Beijing and Blake Dawson and Waldron has been granted a licence to practice in Shanghai. Thailand has granted National Mutual Australasia a licence to operate in a joint venture arrangement with Thailand's General Finance Group and the Government Savings Bank.