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China Research Centre

The China Research Center aims to promote Monash University’s interests and strengths in research on China’s economic and social development.

China has become Australia’s second largest trading partner with increasing two-way flows of goods and services as well as direct investment. Australia is also one of the top destinations for Chinese students undertaking overseas tertiary education. The Center supports academic activities and research involving visiting scholars, post graduate researchers from overseas and Monash. The Center Director Professor On Kit Tam has played an active role in developing strategic engagement with China for the University and the Faculty of Business and Economics over the last few years. With the strong focus by the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Monash on China for the University’s international strategic development since 2006, there will now be more opportunities for diverse academic and research engagements across the disciplines within and outside Monash.

The China Research Center is committed to promote academic research and productive engagement activities including: research cooperation with international and Australian universities, research institutions, and government organisations; workshops and business meetings; seminars and international conferences; competitive research grant bids; research consultancies; postgraduate training. 
 
Recent Activities of the China Research Center

1.  ARC Linkage Research Grant (project to commence August 2007)-collaborative research with China’s Ministry of Finance on improving corporate governance in China’s 166 largest central enterprise groups. Monash University researchers are Prof O.K. Tam (project leader), Prof G. Palmer, Prof J. Godfrey, and J. Chen. The three-year project will assess the corporate governance and firm performance of these conglomerate companies that dominate China’s strategic sectors of the economy, and will produce research publications and high level policy advice.

2. OECD-China Policy Dialogue on Corporate Governance 28-29 March 2007. The Policy Dialogue was organised by the OECD and the Chinese Government with a view to incorporate in OECD’s forthcoming publication of the new OECD Guideline for Boardroom Best Practices key corporate governance policy and operational issues and considerations relating to China’s wholly owned and partially privatised state owned enterprises. Prof On Kit Tam was invited by the OECD to make a presentation and contribute input.

Participants of the Dialogue included leaders of Chinese regulatory authorities and ministries (China Securities Regulatory Commission, State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Ministry of Finance, State Development and Reform Commission, Development Center of the Chinese State Council) as well as major Chinese companies, Australia’s Ambassador to the OECD, and business and legal academic experts from several key American, Japanese and Chinese universities (Yale, Columbia, Tokyo, Tsinghua, and Peking).

3. Research Grant funding from the Natural Science Research Grant Committee of China for a joint research project between Nanjing Agricultural University (Prof Wang Kai) and the Faculty (Professor On Kit Tam ) on comparative corporate governance of key Chinese enterprises in the agricultural supply chain.

4. The Melbourne APEC Finance Centre within the Australian APEC Study Centre will in cooperation with China’s Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Centre hold a Bilateral Policy Dialogue on Improving Governance and Risk Management in Chinese Banks (16-18 July 2007) with leaders from the banking and regulatory sectors in China and Australia. The policy dialogue was sponsored by the Treasury Department of the Australian Commonwealth Government and China’s Ministry of Finance. Professors On Kit Tam chaired three sessions.

The aim of this dialogue is to identify strategic targets and potential resources for programs to enhance China’s capacity to improve governance and risk management in the banking sector. This dialogue will identify strategic targets for future activities over a five year cycle and build durable relations between Australian and Chinese institutions and groups in this area.

4. Associate Professor Guozhong Li (School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing), commences in March 2007 a visiting fellowship at the Faculty of Business and Economics and the China Research Center. Dr Li is undertaking collaborative research with Prof On Kit Tam on China’s corporate finance and governance, and banking reform. Her new book on the capital structure of Chinese companies has just been published in July 2007 by the prestigious Renmin University Press. The publication has also received research grant award from China’s social sciences research foundation.

5. The China Research Center and the Faculty of Business and Economics will jointly host a reception in October 2007 for a Chinese delegation of senior officials and academics who will be attending the Metropolis Conference convened by the Australian Multicultural Foundation.

6. The China Research Center and the Faculty of Business and Economics, with sponsorship from international legal firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, hosted in October 2006 a high level business lunch presentation at the firm’s boardroom by China’s prominent economist Professor Yu Yongding (member of the Chinese Government’s Monetary Policy Committee, and Director of the Institute of International Economy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences).

Research projects managed by the Director, Monash Asia Institute

The China Research Centre also runs a number of research programs managed by the Director of the Monash Asia Institute, Professor Marika Vicziany.  The three projects in this category are described below. For further information about these three  projects, please contact Marika.Vicziany@adm.monash.edu.au

Kashgar Project

This international research collaboration brings together teams from the Monash Asia Institute, Urumqi Normal University (Urumqi), Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (China), the Department of Tourism (Government of Xinjiang), Department of Foreign Relations (Kashgar) and the School of Geography and Environmental Science (Monash University).

The first phase of the project involved a research collaboration to document, measure, and define the most significant cultural monuments and spaces of Kashgar. Monash Asia Institute and Urumqi Normal University acknowledge the special support of the the Department of Tourism, Government of Xinjiang and the Department of Foreign Relations, Kashgar in this phase of the project.

The first phase of this project will conclude when Frances Lincoln publishes a photographic essay on Kashgar- Centre of the Silk Road in May 2008. The photographs (about 250) are the work of the renowned Australian architectural photographer John Gollings; the accompanying essays are by George Michelle, Yenhu Tsui and Marika Vicziany.

The second phase of the Kashgar project involves a more detailed study of the topographical, environmental and archaeological sites of Kashgar. Again, this works depends on the extensive expertise and databases stored at the Urumuqi Normal University in western China. Further details about this work will be announced shortly.

Mobiles Phones And Human Security In India, China And South Africa

This is a joint project involving the The Department of Economics, the Faculty of Information Technology (Caulfield and South Africa) and the Monash Asia Institute.

This study seeks to assess the potential that the mobile phone has for making the lives of the poor in China, India and South Africa more secure.  Poverty is caused by many factors, including a lack of information.  People living below the poverty line or close to it are information poor – they do not have reliable information about prices in local markets and so are easily cheated; they cannot compare their labouring capacities and wages with others and so are the victims of indebtedness; they do not have access to information about entitlements including educational opportunities or pensions; and poor families are frequently separated by economic necessity yet cannot inform each other of family crises and thereby are made further dysfunctional. There is also emerging evidence to suggest that mobile phones can play a role in establishing sustainable micro-enteprises.

This project seeks to assess how and in what circumstances the mobile phone can change cycles of poverty.  Despite globalisation and industrialisation, over 800 million people globally are very poor.

Italian-Chinese Relations in Prato

Collaboration in this research project involves members from the Monash Asia Institute, the Asian Business and Economics Research Unit (ABERU) and Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements.

The aim of this project is to understand migration trends, economic and social issues relating to the new Chinese community in Prato.  Facets of the research project include:

 

 

 

  • Research Projects
  • Postgraduate Studies
  • MAI Research Centres
  • MAI Press & Asian Films