Australia's ambition to become a leading financial services hub in the Asia Pacific region is unrealistic, according to a global fund manager.
"Every country in Asia wants to be a financial services hub - Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Clearly, some of those are more realistic than others," QIC head of funds management Hazel McNeilage said last week at the Institute of Actuaries of Australia's annual conference.
"I do not believe that Australia really makes sense as a financial services hub for the region. I don't believe that sitting in Australia you get the information flow from an investment management perspective on Asia that you really need.
"I think Australia certainly has a role to play, but I think we are fooling ourselves if we think we are going to become the hub location for Asia Pacific for financial services."
Singapore and Hong Kong are more likely contenders for the prime spot, while Shanghai will probably also play a significant role in the future, she said.
McNeilage also argued that Australian investors should focus not only on China, but also on India.
"When you look at India there clearly are a lot of challenges - infrastructure being pretty close to the top of that list - and definitely being the world's largest democracy has its price," she said.
"But if you talk to the CEOs and CFOs of large companies in India, which I certainly had the opportunity to do, they are ultra-impressive. They will stack up against the CEOs and CFOs of the best companies in the world.
"You talk to the same people in China and that is not the case. In India, if you are a really successful company you have done it in spite of very poor infrastructure and in spite of the government, whereas probably in China the opposite is probably the case."
McNeilage joined QIC in November last year after having spent several years abroad with Principal Global Investors in New York and Asia.
In her most recent role at Principal she was global head of sales, marketing and client services, being responsible for clients with a total of $215 billion in assets under management.
