Riding Tigers and Dragons on Shifting Sands – The new geopolitical conundrum for the Commonwealth.
In this masterclass facilitated by Dr Suresh George, he reviews the current state of play around global geopolitics and the conundrum for the shifting geopolitical positions in the Commonwealth.
Dr Suresh George is Associate Professor and Curriculum Lead for International Business, Coventry University.
The MBA with a specialised pathway in Global Trade and Investment is a unique offer to employees of CWEIC Strategic Partners. This is a closed bespoke course which builds on the Coventry MBA in developing practice and creating sustainable long-term value. This masterclass will be followed with a short introduction to the MBA and will allow for Q&A.
Okay it’s it’s 10:03 I think that’s a uh good time to kick off um I just want to First say good morning good afternoon or indeed good evening I my name is Charlotte I am the director of programs for the Commonwealth Enterprise and investment Council and I just want to
Welcome everybody to to this webinar today um especially those from cwic strategic Partners uh we are delighted to be working in collaboration with centry University on this webinar and the bespoke MBA program in global trade and investment which we’ll be learning more about later we are very excited today to be
Joined by Dr SES George who is the associate professor of international business and the curriculum lead for in the international business portfolio at Coventry University who will be leading Us in the topic today Rising tigers and dragons on shifting Sands the new geopolitical conundrum for the Commonwealth I’ll shortly hand over to
The MBA academic team to say a few words before Dr George begins this master class but I’d just like to take this opportunity to say a few words about cwe and the Commonwealth for those who may not have come across us before the cwe is a membership organization with the Mandate from the
Commonwealth heads of government to promote trade and investment across the 56 Nations our job is to bring the economic of opportunity of the Commonwealth to the world’s doorstep and to promote the wealth as a place to do business with our shared legal systems administrative systems and Common
Language it is on average around 21% cheaper to do business within the Commonwealth and we call this the Commonwealth Advantage our network is supported by an extremely diverse partner base around 114 strategic Partners from across the Commonwealth from governments both Regional and National to Chambers of Commerce investment promotion agencies
To multilateral organizations and Global businesses we have a hub network of around 14 offices spread across the Commonwealth providing in-country expertise and accessed markets for businesses looking to expand and operate so what really makes the Commonwealth a unique place to do business it has a combined population of
Around 2.5 billion citizens it is home to over 40% of the global Workforce and over half of the top 20 emerging cities CW I recognizes the challenges that face many of the Commonwealth today including recent economic and geopolitical challenges and the ongoing threats of things like climate change to address
Some of these challenges the significance of Education cannot be underestimated further education and professionals qualifications play a vital role in supporting workers to reach their potential and provides employers with a highly skilled and versatile Workforce a key to supporting some of these Global challenges is educating and nurturing ambitious
Leaders who can think critically and strategically to solve complex business issues we’re very excited to see what the MBA current programs cohort will achieve in the future and I think we’ve got our first Co cohort starting in May of this year the bespoke MBA program is a fantastic opportunity to develop
Skills and the knowledge essential to a career in business and we hope will consider the immense opportunity that this program can bring to yourselves and your business we hope you enjoy the master class and do please get involved by by asking questions um I’ll now hand
Over to Dr Eno makok to say a few words and to introduce Dr George thank you so much thank you so much Charlotte good morning everyone and Welcome to our first taste and Master Class um shalotte has introduced The Commonwealth and I want to introduce the MBA as well my
Name is Dr REO I’m the executive director of the MBA um this tar session is this webinar offers you a preview into the centry university Commonwealth MBA course in partnership with the Commonwealth Enterprise and Innovation Council it’s bespoke so it’s exclusively for seek members its strategic partners
And its Network and has a specialized pathway in global trade and investment and that’s why we’re starting with Dr George who is a specialist in ational trade and international business I would love to give you a quick preview of Dr George’s background as Charlotte said he’s at associate professor and the
Curriculum need for our international business portfolio here at centry University his research interest is around the linkages between international business institutional environment geopolitical context of doing business and he has published key themes around this area he has also been involved in several w widely used strategic Solutions within management and international business education
More recently he’s been developing an interest in sustainable and ethnical business strategies particularly in Emerging Market he has over 20 years of experience in business within an international context and has lived and worked across India Kenya Nigeria Oman and the UK he has also taught at universities in Portugal and India he’s
A fellow of the higher education Academy and a member of the Academia of international business welcome Dr George the stage is yours thank you youo for the introduction and thank you Charlotte for the wonderful introduction I hope I can leave to your expectations um I also like to welcome
All the participants and I do hope um we can learn from each other um on this session please feel free to ask um questions and because it’s more of a debate around the the topic now I’m actually going to start by asking us to focus on just the Commonwealth and his
Interactions with two of his U greatest um economic actors India and China now because this is a a taste of session of what we do at commentary I’m going to limit myself to just a few key points the first section is looking at some of the key geopolitical insights in the world of
2024 and how this leads to a geopolitical conundrum for the Commonwealth and finally look at some of the key um aspects of this conundrum for uh the Commonwealth in terms of both opportunities as well as threats um and then find we’ll open up for for a brief
Discussion now to start with let’s just review what’s the current geopolitical lands landscape um particularly around the commonweal now if you were reading the newspapers on a daily basis or perhaps watching some of the uh news uh videos or uh listening to some of the podcasts around geopolitic you will see that one
Of the biggest threats to our International order and how it affects international trade is that National sovereignty and the concept of sovereign legitimacy is Shifting because of Shifting power equations there’s a widespread decline of liberalism and there’s also a decline in um what one would like to call inclusive International architectures around peace
And War now that is lead leading us to a a a contest around both unilateralism multilateralism and forcing us to challenge some of the established Norms around specific countries and that’s very key for us uh who are students of international business in if you look at the two major players
That we are focusing on India and China are approaching the geopolitical landscapes in different forms as a member of the Quad security uh grouping India is doing its best to you know kind of keep China away from the indo-pacific uh area while China is for the most part becoming a
Geopolitical heavyweight in its own right we also see that the Comm some common way states are getting involved in this for example the very recent U Naval exercise in the Indian Ocean led by uh Australia a commonwealth nation is forcing countries particularly uh Commonwealth states to take positions however one should accept the
Fact here that as an economic superpower China is also economic a geopolitical alternative geopolitical um point for many countries it’s also a success story for many developing states in the the Commonwealth because of the fact mere fact me just one fact is that its ability to take over 680 million people
Out of poverty between about between two decades that is a very that’s a success story many developing part parts of the Commonwealth would like to emulate and to this mix one of the challenges we have is what is increasingly becoming evident that our entire International order is being disrupted by from bipolarity to
Multipolarity to a new digital world order now what does that what is the implication for us in terms of trade geopolitics now one of the key aspects of trade geopolitics is the tensions we see between both countries and some of the Commonwealth States as Charlotte says the Commonwealth is a major producer uh
Grouping and also a major consumer uh grouping we have 40% of the working global global working population in the Commonwealth the Commonwealth has over 60% of its population below the age of 29 which means there’s a new uh a new generation of population that is uh creating new forms of
Demand there are also several informal and multi formal grouping of States outside of our traditional political order which is causing tensions between markets the National Security agenda of country the Scramble for resourcing and groupings of Nations this is compounded by the fact that it there is an interplay between
The tensions and disruptive disruptive Mega Trends uh that are impac in the world and I I will go that separately now one of the most prent aspects of our our our uh analysis of what’s Happening in terms of the current geopolitical uh tension is trade geopolitics and particularly then the
Way because we are a highly inter interdependent and integrated global economy how certain countries are manipulating or actually exerting their interest on the global uh chalk points so for example in 202 2029 we has several choke points and if you look carefully at this graph you see
The biggest choke uh points by weight of trade is around the Asia the south Asia pacif South Asia sea and you will also see that there’s also it’s also a place of contest now mind you this is also a point where this is quite important for us because over
60% of the world’s uh economic U contributions either in terms of consumption or production passed through these gloobal CH points now what you see there is that we have several geopolitical interests uh China is becoming is trying to become the dominant Naval power while India is trying to maintain its Naval Supremacy
Um by you know using the Us and other allies the quad Alliance to maintain a a a a freedom of Passage however what please note here that China was so for all um its interest in the South China Sea has never ever deviated from the fact that it wants freedom of navigation
And for glob the global economic trade to to travel to the region now sorry okay now the reality of 2024 is that the the United States China and India are heavily active in the uh Indo Pacific region and this is just a current um map um of uh what’s happening in that region
The global choke points now I’m not going to the politics of the choke point but more specifically what I would like to show here is the fact that although you see these uh military assets or control uh interests by India China and the US what you should realize here is
That in this uh in in in this context China’s Asia in uh infrastructure Investment Bank is slowly becoming the L lender the preferred lender for many of the countries in this region it in fact the Chinese export import bank has become the uh second largest uh um lender to for
Infrastructure projects in many of these countries and that’s quite important for us to understand why we must understand how China and India interplay with their relationship with with the commonweal now moving forward out of the total population of 2.5 billion people 2.6 billion people in the Commonwealth India as a member of the
Commonwealth has 60% of the population yet we cannot disc discard the fact that China is at the second highest population is a key to Commonwealth trade Dynamics now the context here is how diaspora mediated remittances are helping with the the story of uh uh the success story of both India and
China and this also leads to soft power deployments and how both countries are using diaspora for soft power deployment in fact one of the contributing factors to the digital the world order is the fact that China is dominating the semiconductor industry of which the digital order will depend and
Is increasingly becoming more important to the digital world order because of its focus on technology platforms rather than India although India is dominating in service technology and services it’s also pertinent here to explain that um although the Indian diaspora is perceived to be more prominent in many of the Commonwealth
States per capita billionaire weal is more specific to um the Chinese diaspora now you can see this very clearly in some states like Malaysia Canada and the UK or South Africa where there are substantial diaspora population from both India and China these are commonwealth States and in fact the smallest um you know
Uh Commonwealth state has about 810 people of both countries who are they now this is actually creating geopolitical con diaspora contest which is moving uh playing into uh the Strategic uh intent of these countries and which will impact how we view um the um the international trade moving forward now while India is
Considered to be a bigger exporter of talent to the Commonwealth through uh its command of English language and of course it’s more closeness to the British system or the English language you also notice that CH the Chinese diaspora are increasingly helping in transforming the world particularly if you look at some
Of the energy transition spheres Chinese diasporas are quite key now this brings us to the conundrum so what is this what does this mean for the Commonwealth now let’s start with India just because of the fact that the Commonwealth has been one of the first institutions that India has engaged with
At a global level uh before and after Independence India was very active in the Commonwealth resp foreign policy interventions particularly in the 1950s and 60s and slowly the interest started waning all the way till 1990s when it started becoming um where you could see the end of the uh non-aligned movement
And a lack of Interest however although India is currently the world’s largest population and China is declining uh in terms of population India will continue to decline and the the challenge we have is if India and China is declining what is the single biggest block of countries that
Will support the population growth of the world and hence uh help in uh developing markets you were surprised to know it’s actually the Commonwealth because if you look at the uh latest 2023 population um D um demographic data you will find out of the top countries
By the way Sy is the fastest growing population in the world in the in the world as 2023 then next uh the top four um are from the Comm you have Nigeria you have um other countries in the Commonwealth that are increasingly becoming important and many members of the Commonwealth are increasingly become
Dispersed because of migration towards the rest of the world which then helps us with how does the Commonwealth deal with transnational diasporic networks in helping geoeconomic strategic intent of both commonwealth countries as well as uh you know maybe political actors like India and China one of the other political conr is
How do you deal with these countries if India is following a specific geopolitical approach China is following a much bigger infrastructur Le uh um U geopolitical position in fact if you look at uh some of the major infrastructure projects in the world India and CH India is actually one of
The biggest sorry China is the biggest in lender to infrastructure projects so then we also sh shifts Charlotte mentioned the fact that we have 40% of the econom of the global um you know uh working population we have very young population the Commonwealth we are going to support the world’s transition to a
Much cleaner world and that’s going to happen because of the fact of our we have a very young population along with this you will have a shift in economic power and a shift towards the rise of new geopolitical players like India China and some other countries in the Commonwealth the polit geopolitical
Rivalry between in the CH the US and China is actually going to help uh shift uh economic power to non-political actors like the Comm world and we we have already seen examples of that from other informal groupings of countries in recent times like countries like Russia
And China and Iran so where does that lead us to where where where is this geopolitical shift leading us to now Ian brma from the you know well noted political scientist has actually said we might end up having moving towards a g0 geopolitical world where there is no major political power and
There is no Global leader we are moving toward a a rule by consensus at a world order where you have no major players and this is where the Commonwealth can perhaps help because the Commonwealth is a non-political loose grouping of countries who want to do um you know do
Better in a world where there is on one side most of our Island states in the Commonwealth are affected by climate Transitions and the climate emergency particularly the island States and if we are moving towards a cleaner energy Trans Energy System for the to power the next Industrial
Revolution most of our renewable energy materials and resources are going to come from the Commonwealth now a g0 political world seems to be quite plausible and nothing is going to be going to happen but seems to be quite PL plausible if the Commonwealth starts engaging with this geopolitical
Kandra and that is where I want us to look at some of the key advantages for the Commonwealth uh from what I’ve explained so far now we have seen what has happened during a black SW event like the like the co pandemic and how for example most of our understanding of international
Geopolitical power and order was uh thrown into disr by the co pandemic the postco recovery economic recovery um is happening more in some critical areas of the Commonwealth we also see that the Commonwealth is key for energy transition uh activities and systems particularly because India and China
Just simply by the virtue of their you know huge uh carbon Footprints and the fact that they one of the biggest polluters are major swing actors in our climate uh climate transition systems and and because of their involvement in the Commonwealth one as one of the dominant players in the Commonwealth and
One because it’s it’s affects the trade Dynamics in the Commonwealth has an opportunity to be major swing countries particularly for for for these uh for the energy transition system and the pandemic has and also recent geopolitical events has forced many countries to reconfigure the global Supply chains of course you could argue
Here that China is trying to reconfigure Global Supply chains because of the the trade chock points that we have seen or you could and here you know China is using its aisle of pears strategy to you know to create new trade configurations while India is doing its diamond
Necklace strategy also to control U changes uh to control this choke points however what one if you read the more recent literature you will find that many countries have started reconfiguring the global supply chain which is very important for us in the Commonwealth because this gives us the opportunity to reconfigure our own
Internal systems institutional configurations to help with the new Global Supply Chain now please do not forget here that China and will still be a very important player because of the fact that the R&B has become a defacto currency many Regional trades many Regional um Commonwealth trade uh deals are done in the
R&B it also then leads us to FR Shoring why can’t the Commonwealth and it’s it’s happening in the commonweal particularly through the Commonwealth free trade area agreements and is also happening through the African unions uh uh trade uh deals that FR Shoring is becoming more relevant and more important so intra
Commonwealth trade combined with new Global Supply Chain reconfigurations will be a win situation win-win situation for for the Commonwealth and finally and this is where I think this is more crucial a crucial role that the Commonwealth can play The Commonwealth exists as a friendly grouping of non-political it’s a non-political friendly grouping of
States the Commonwealth actually can act as suppli a supplier of legitimacy to whatever China and India wants to do in their Global Ambitions and this this is quite key how we perceive the common world’s interactions with with with the countries uh with these countries now I would just like to um
You know have a breakout session and that’s it this actually concludes the Tas the session I was told I have only about 20 minutes so um if you have any questions for me we can start the uh the discussions thank you thank you Dr George I’ll hand over to
Anna for the to moderate the S the questions yes if you have any questions please um feel free to put them in the Q&A um box at the bottom and I will make sure they get answered by Dr George um yeah pleas send along your questions well I think
Um you’ve explained it so well that we haven’t got any um any questions at the moment um but perhaps if anyone thinks of uh a question in a little bit um feel free to put them in in the chat and we can get back to them later um otherwise
For now I will hand over to um Eno to start talking about the MBA program thank you so much ala um welcome again everyone and good morning once again I’m just going to show a few slides and talk for 5 10 minutes and then we’ll open it up for
Questions welcome once again everyone um I’m going to be talking about our Facebook course in partnership with SE at MBA in global trade and investment and I’d like you to join me in in just engaging with this before I start I’d like to introduce our associate course
Director anas gas who will be supporting me as I go through this I’ve introduced the MBA thank I introduced the MBA in global trade and investment it’s a Coventry University flagship course it’s situated within the business school and it’s designed specifically for seek members is strategic partners and networks only
It’ll be delivered online with inclusion of residentials in one of our Global hubs during the delivery of our specialist modules in global trade and investment there will be opportunities within this course to enhance your skill and understanding of global trade investment in agreements and Partnerships that it will have a very
Strong practitioner Focus personal and skill development will be the underlying them of this course it’s quite generalist but as you get to the Master’s level you then become a specialist it’s designed to to develop holistic Innovative and socially responsible Business Leaders in high performance organizations within the global
Market the content of the course it includes 6 15 credit modules and a final 30 credit NBA consultancy project you’re going to start up with Innovation and Entrepreneurship then you move on to leadership and change management strategy and decision making Global Marketing and the ones highlighted green are your specialist module global trade
And Investments the political and legal landscape financial instruments in the global business environment and your NBA consultancy project your project will be solving a business problem within your own organization it will run over a two-year period and you will be completing one to two modules per semester already you will be Exempted
From the four certificate level modules because you are at a level that exempts you from these modules this is what it looks like the ones in red are the modules you will be Exempted from business processes geopolitical and legal environment organizational behavior and financial analysis you start up at the diploma
Level complete the four modules at diploma level and move on to the Master’s level we are expecting that at the end of this program you’re able to bring about change within your organization the scheme you will be you will be supported via experienced module Specialists centry University hour
Platform a dedicated course director and Associate course directors for each module participants will have the opportunity to participate in our residential at one of Coventry universities Global hubs across the world and it could either be in Coventry Dubai Brussels Rwanda or Singapore during the residentials the local teams
Within our Hub will draw on local and Regional expertise to provide a schedule of Master sessions which will tie in key themes of the modules during the residentials we’re expecting visits to businesses guest speaker sessions and facilitated group support sessions Learners who are not able to travel to
The hub for these residential sessions will receive access to relevant content and materials for those who will join us in May 2024 we also have a social business trip to Kerala in India at the end of June which is partly funded by the university so you will be elgible to participate in
That just by being part of the MB to program these are the drafts schedule for those starting in May 2024 we start off with the first module on the 13th which will be your induction and at the end of the month we start the delivery then the second module on the 16th of
September and the third module on the 20th of January 2025 our key partners that we work with who have worked with centry University are the NHS Blakemore air ambulance dcms virgin care just it Ministry of Defense head for CH Council University College not London net Absol Hall Council and
Many more we have a lot of Partners who work with us on our MBA programs what do we offer an international team of academics who offer an international perspective they draw from their industry experience to inform teaching research and consultancy activity we have very Innovative assessments and there are no exams on
The MBA we have weekly dropping sessions with your module leaders and your associate lecturers we also have mini MBA webinar series which we use to develop soft skills and also we have networking events every semester we have specialized guest speaker sessions to contextualize your Le and give you an
Opportunity to network the optional residentials in one of our global hubs and our MBA conference which happens every two years also what would you what support would you get as a student our library is open 24 hours both physically and online we include digital books as well
As journals access to online skill study skills the center for academic writing Sigma math and statistics support and the 24 hours access to our virtual learning environment houra weekly advice sessions access to C directors access to progress coach and access to health and well-being support we also have a
Frequently asked questions on our oura course page so what then is the entry criteria we would expect that you would be an employee or a strategic partner of sew its member or its Network um you’d have an undergraduate degree you would have seven years experience of senior leadership
Experience or experience of running your own business with that evidence we then exempt you for the from the certificate level modules the documents would require from you are your degree certificate professional qualifications or award CV cover letter and the application form fees the fees for this Academic Year is
13,533 but every seek applicant has a discount of ,000 so it drops down to 12,533 you will now be able to pay in installments each semester admissions once we accept your offer we’ll give you a payment link and then we’ll reach out to you to kind of enroll
And start the whole onboarding process with us we are here to support you through this process to facilitate a smooth enrollment I’ve gotten to the end of this because I want to talk to you so I’m going to stop sharing if there are any questions email us or contact C thank you
Over to you Hannah yes there’s just um if there’s any questions about the MBA program also please feel free to put them in the Q&A um and whilst we wait for those questions I think um I will send along some questions to um back about the geopolitical dynamic um so
Starting with um this question and I will just set answer live um Dr George how is the Conwell strengthening trade relations amongst his members given the GL changing Global Geographic landscape and perhaps Charlotte our Direction programs would also like to come in here question I’m happy to to start to give a
Couple of thoughts and then may maybe Dr George you can follow on as well because we we had a short discussion um uh before we we started this webinar on a on a couple of item I think um you know one of the things that has come across
And Dr George mentioned is is the incredible kind of sort of soft power um capacity within the Commonwealth um it is not a group of Nations that is bound together by um signing up to a particular trade agreement or anything like that it’s you signed up to the
Commw world Charter and it’s very much a familiar group of Nations so I think broadly speaking we know that you know global economic challenges are commonwealth challenges and I think where we have where the Commonwealth has an ability to kind of bring voices together is you know we’re not bound by
Kind of particular councils we’re not by abound by particular agreements we have the ability to get an incredibly diverse group around the table we have the ability to get um and specifically what we do with CW I we have the ability to bring businesses and the private sector
Direct to governments and direct um to both sort of governments at sort of ministerial level and kind of trade ministers we often host sort of round tables with trade ministers or Ministers of investment promotion all the way up to heads of government at Chum um one of
The very very unique things about Chum is the ability for heads of government to sit with the private sector hear directly from them as to what some of the challenges are and hear that perspective so I think you know a very longwinded way of saying that the sort
Of the soft power is um really the Commonwealth strength uh within this particular sphere and I don’t know uh Dr George or indeed any of the team if you if you’d like to follow on from that oh thank you Charlotte um I think that’s a quite relevant question given
The nature of the Commonwealth as to describ shot um and also I mean in terms of what the Commonwealth is doing and if you look at some of the member State activities I think fundamentally I think um many states in the Commonwealth are revisiting um and I’m I’m I’m using this
Term very Loosely because I can’t find another term the so-called Global South so the global South um which includes several of our developing States is increasingly becoming important in a Global Soft power dialogue particularly because I mean just let’s take uh last year um the global South countries contributed almost n
42% of towards the global economy so that’s a major you know a trade landscape and countries like India have actually supported in including uh helping many m m multilateral forums for example India’s contribution towards the global South has been you know bringing the African Union uh into the UN Security
Council supporting Australia’s uh you know decision to be a member of the UN Security Council H China’s Focus here would be you know um how it’s helping with soft low interest loans for infrastructure building particularly if you’re looking at countries that are trying to bridge the digital dividing which is one of the
Commonwealth key interest areas so yes it’s happening now the diaspora and interventions of the diaspora they also contributing heavily into uh the changes that the Commonwealth is also enabling and is helping reshape some of our our um understanding of of the country so it’s quite important and finally just to
Conclude I think uh another key intervention that you might see becoming more prominent is climate emergency measures that the Commonwealth states are doing particular the smaller Island developing States and this very pertinent because the Commonwealth is actually key in helping to support the the challenges faced by those Island
States I hope I can answer answer the question thank you I I can follow on just very briefly from that to something that um came to me as as you’re answering Dr georgees and I think some people may know this about the Commonwealth already but within the Commonwealth the sort of every country
Has one vote regardless of size regardless of of population regardless of GDP regardless of anything so it’s an incredibly diverse group of Nations that have equal shares and I think is probably one of the only organizations in which sort of you know kabas has the same voting power as as the United
Kingdom or as India or as Canada Australia for example so when you think about the sort of and go exactly what you were saying with small island States and I think something and go going to kick myself for being quoted on this but something like sort of 33 of the
Commonwealth Nations or 25 of Commonwealth nations are small island States they represent a huge voting block within the Commonwealth and it is really an opportunity then for the larger countries or countries that sit on un security councils or others to take the interests of small island States or climate vulnerable states to
These sort of wider Global um Gatherings and I think that’s something that is really incredibly unique about the Commonwealth as well thank you to you both um for that very answer um we I think we have time for one more question about the um the topic of the master class and then
There’s another question about the MBA that we’ll get to um but um Dr George perhaps you would like to comment on how does Australia fit into this geopolitical Dynamic right okay well thank you for that question I think I was a bit afraid of the question but uh
I think I’ll answer it so um right so um in recent times I think so let’s just go back into say about 10 15 years back Australia has been one of the like one of the Commonwealth states that have engaged bilaterally with China particularly because it’s a net it’s a
Export of Natural Resources to China it also Imports um a a large amount of trade goods from China Australia also has a large Chinese diaspora so there have been multiple levels of Engagement um ironically the other side of the political dilemma that Australia has been doing is its involvement in the quadrilateral uh
Security partnership the quad and the fact that Australia is trying to contest uh in contest against China in the in the uh in uh in the Indo Pacific region now I think what is happening is Australia is in a bit of a dilemma because considering the fact that you
Know it’s one of the biggest trading partners for other countries in the common particular the UK um I I personally think that uh there would be some major shifts in the way Australia redefines Its position in a gzo political landscape and and that’s where the the advantage of the country has is
It’s engaging bilaterally with India with other Commonwealth States particular the the island States uh in a very positive fashion so there shouldn’t be any reason um why it would not um it will not you know be more important and one of the key aspects of how Australia might you
Know redefine itself comes from the fact that it’s quite a key player in the Asia Pacific region and we expecting a reconfiguration Supply chains particularly from to move some elements of the supply chain I mean at this point in the global economic cycle we cannot replace China as the biggest most
Critical player for us in this Global Supply Chain but there’s going to be some shift towards other parts of uh the Asia Pacific region and Australia could benefit from some of those uh shifts I hope that answers the question yes absolutely thank you very much um I will now hand over this
Question to the MBA to you um how is the MBA divided between skills development and academic learning thank you Anna I’ll just pick this up and talk through uh I’ll talk through how it’s divided the key Focus for us here is ensuring that you get the knowledge you need to actually achieve
The goals that you set out to achieve when you come on the N for some people it’s actually a switch in career some people is to legitimize legitimization of their portfolio that they have to Simply say I have something that legitimizes it however during your MBA you would complete a wide variety of
Research based projects and part of this project will build your MBA career portfolio for example you do things that maybe around conducting market research study for your organization or your personal business but you also not your self-esteem because you begin to believe in yourself that you’re capable of doing
It by undertaking this project you’re building your academic side of things they’re also developing skills as well but also there’s a big picture to keep in focus when completing your NBA because you’re tracking yourself how is the learning taking place and how am I changing in the process but you’re also
Generating a healthy self-interest in a balance for work family life and study because you all will be working professionals because you’re undertaking it as a part-time uh program and there’s also assistant within assistance within the organ ization to help you to support that work life balance but what you
Learn the soft skills you learn from it is time management time management you learn from it by balancing your work study and family life we’re also embracing social social networking because part of it is to build and expand your social networks and that’s why we include all these extracurricular
Activities within the NBA things around the master classes visit to organizations residentials social Enterprises a social business strips we always encourage you to partake in it because you’ll be meeting with industry leaders and Business Leaders and participating in conferences discussing discussions and open open table um um
Debates and finally the last thing I would say is that you would also join professional organizations while on the MBA and we always suggest that as you go through the NBA you reinvent yourself you look back at what you really wanted to achieve when we started and by the
End of it we hoping you would have reinvented yourself I hope this has answered your questions I’ll hand back to Anna um thank you very much and um I would love to do the MBA program myself so I need to enroll um I don’t think we
Have any more questions but um just to recap from from our side and from cwic so this webinar will be available online to rewatch and you will receive an email with the link in the coming in the coming days um I will also ask ask you
Know an anas if you could put your email details um in the chat so in case there are any questions they want to ask uh participants want to ask directly um they can do so and I will also put uh my email in the chat if there are any
Questions from about cwic and what we do or if there’s any questions how we work with centry University on the MBA program please do get in touch and we’d be more than happy to have a conversation or um yeah be be able to answer that question for you um so if
There aren’t any questions from the audience I will thank Dr George firstly thank you very much for your time today for a fantastic overview uh of such a complex issue so thank you very much and of course to the NBA team um Dr makok and Dr gas thank you very much for your
Time and for the continued support for cwic and we look forward to working together on this MBA program and of course to my colleague Charlotte for wonderfully introducing the organization at the start um so thank you all very much for your time today and um yeah we look forward to Um we look forward to hearing from you if there’s any questions thank you thank you Anna thank you everybody thank you everyone thank you much thank you