Canberra Times’ Article:

‘Hindmarsh drives through China's boom gate‘

By Ben Doherty

There are 50 million people in Beijing, and 2.5 million cars.

Last year the number of cars grew by nearly 500,000, and by the time the 2008 Olympic Games roll around, it is predicted there will be another million on the road.

Canberra's Hindmarsh Group hopes to find places to put them all.
Hindmarsh is a 40 per cent shareholder in Beijing Kingdy Parking, which currently manages about 40,000 car parks in Beijing and is overseeing the construction of an underground car park for 1000 vehicles beneath Tien An Men Square in the heart of the city.
Car parking, such a fundamental piece of infrastructure in modern cities, is a booming industry in Beijing.

As more and more Chinese buy cars, more and more car parks need to be found.

Currently, many of the underground car parks in major Chinese cities are converted bomb shelters, but redevelopment is progressing quickly.

Hindmarsh has expertise in the area, already managing car parks in Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne under the banner of EziPark.
Board chairman of Kingdy Liu Ju is in Australia this week for further talks with Hindmarsh, and to see the EziPark parks in operation and the technology being used in them.

He said the opportunities for companies involved in road and motoring infrastructure were enormous in China.

"The huge increase in the number of cars has all occurred in the last five years, and the original infrastructure in China, the roads and car parking spaces, was never designed for the huge number of cars."

But Hindmarsh's interest in China runs deeper than simple parking infrastructure.

It is also in discussions with China Red Cross about becoming involved in retirement-village developments in Beijing and Zhangzhou.

And the company recently opened the Canberra Commerce Office in Shanghai, a joint venture between the ACT Government and Hindmarsh, which provides ACT companies trying to gain access to the Chinese market with office space in the Pudong business district of the city.

Hindmarsh's business in China is conducted through Henry Lee, a former ACT Government employee who worked with the Business ACT program in working to establish links with Chinese companies.

Mr Lee has assisted - and continues to help - not only Hindmarsh, but also the Australian National University and other Canberra organisations to forge links in China.

But Hindmarsh's entry into the world's largest emerging economy has not happened overnight.

"The world sees China as the most exciting market in the world, but it has been a full three years of perseverance to reach this point where these opportunities are beginning to emerge," managing director and company founder John Hindmarsh told The Canberra Times.

He said the Canberra "brand" was becoming very well known in its sister-city Beijing.