This briefing paper was produced for the Australian Business Foundation to stimulate debate and to explore options for engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.  Through a series of industry case studies, this paper demonstrates that there are untapped opportunities for Australian business in high growth knowledge intensive industries in the Asia Pacific region.  Although traditional commodity industries have contributed significantly to exports, the future lies in competing on superior knowledge and skills.  Within these industries there are hidden strengths that could be capitalised on, ie, adding valuable services to traditional products to provide customised solutions and adopting more sophisticated sales and marketing techniques.

With a few exceptions, SMEs are lagging behind their competitors in adopting knowledge management approaches to capture their share of the export dollar in this rapidly growing regional economy.  These businesses would be better served by government policy which supports the potential for Australian businesses to tap into global production chains through better knowledge management processes and capabilities, rather than focusing on information and communications technology hardware and infrastructure.