There's something funny about the way we do business. 

Take a look at our trading partners for example. Last year Japan bought more of the stuff that we produce than any other country. All in all they spent $32 627 million goods we produce here in Australia. The Chinese follow at a reasonable distance paying us $22 845 million, then came South Korea spending $13 071 million,  India at $10 099 million, and then the US and New Zealand each of whom spent a little under $10 000 million.  

But if you look over to our services sector a very different picture emerges. For starters, the value of our services exports is much smaller than our merchandise exports - our entire services exports only brought in $46 233 million in 2007, compared to $215 850 million for merchandise exports.  

And our principal services customer is the US at $5286 million, followed but the UK, $4356 million, Japan, $3284 million, China; $3169, and New Zealand at $3006 million.  So while our commodities, agriculture and manufacturing sectors are largely focussed on Asia, our services sector remains trained on our Anglo allies the US and the UK.  

There are any number of historical, cultural, linguistic and yes even economic reasons why this might be the case, however, it could be suggested we are picking the low hanging fruit and rather than climbing up into the canopy.  

Sitting as we do amongst a series of emerging economies that a growing gangbusters, it's a wonder we're not doing a better job of targeting our services, which are clearly prized by some, in a slightly different direction.  

What's more we have a not-so-secret weapon; half a million residents who speak some form of Chinese at home, seventy thousand people who speak Hindi, and fifty thousand speakers of Korean.   

It's the most important resource there is - PEOPLE!  

But there seems to be a disconnect between the resources we have available, and what we put into practice in the world of business.  And given the US banking sector is getting the wobbles, it's probably a good time to look seriously at using the human resources we have here at our fingertips, to refocus of our services market.  

Granted, there might be a whole different set of rules when it comes to selling services into Asia, but there are a stack of people already here who can read and translate them for Australian businesses.  

So what are we waiting for?