Farmers need to stay on the land: business leader

Rural areas should develop through "ruralization" instead of industrialization while APEC economies can jointly tap business opportunities during the transformation, a leading businessman from Australia said on Wednesday.

"Poverty can be alleviated in rural communities through the freeing of capital and land tenure and ownership reform," said Matthew Tukaki, co-founder of the EntreHub, a global initiative founded in February that aims to support budding entrepreneurs.

However, among his many titles, Tukaki is best known as the head of Drake Australia, one of the world's oldest employment companies and latterly as the co-founder of the Sustain Group. Last year, he was also appointed as the director of the Board of the United Nations Global Compact.

"One challenge faced by China, and APEC economies in general, is more and more people moving away from the land to cities as urbanization continues. How do we feed ourselves if no one farms the land?" he said.

Tukaki was in Beijing to attend the Rural Development Forum on the sidelines of the Third Senior Officials' Meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation 2014. He urged the integration of rural development as part of the broader APEC agenda.

"This whole myth of transferring the rural population to cities is one thing, but if that rural population does not necessarily have the skills to compete in a city economy, it can cause all sorts of problems such as unemployment, homelessness and mental health issues," Tukaki said.

One way to encourage farmers to stay on the land is to build a multi-million dollar cooperative business, according to Tukaki.

"If individual farmers form themselves into a cooperative, they can then share loans, the administration and the marketing of produce to attract customers," he said, adding that farmers need to improve financial literacy to make their business a success.

"In the APEC framework, if we bring, for example, New Zealand's expertise on farming and dairy industry together with China's skills in infrastructure, we will have a formidable package," Tukaki said.

On Monday, Australian mining tycoon and Member of Parliament Clive Palmer called the Chinese people and government "mongrels" and "bastards" during a TV show on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Palmer has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the Chinese-owned Citic Pacific over financial issues.

While urging Palmer to "shut his mouth", Tukaki said those destructive remarks have put the broader Australian reputation with the country's single largest trading partner at risk.

"In China, a lot has been achieved in alleviating tens of millions from poverty, raising health, education and living standards. Reform is ongoing and China continues to learn and innovate," Tukaki said. "China is also learning about the role it now plays by virtue of both their economic and military strength."

Last year, bilateral trade surpassed $130 billion, a 20.7 percent increase, with China being Australia's largest trading partner and export market.

Beijing and Canberra also pledged in April during Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's visit to China to step up efforts to complete their nearly decade-long negotiation on a free-trade agreement by the end of the year.

If signed, the agreement would mark China's first FTA with a major developed economy and give Australian agricultural products easier access to the Chinese market.

Tukaki said Chinese enterprises will equally benefit from the FTA because Australia offers all sorts of business opportunities in areas such as life science and technology.