ABC Managing Director Mark Scott will unveil an ambitious plan to expand the corporation’s international services during a lecture in Sydney tonight. The new, as yet unfunded plan, intends to “reach tens of millions of new listeners and viewers.”

In an interview for ABC News, Mark Scott revealed the government has sought a proposal from the ABC, but that it will “have to be factored into the budget.”

The plan will “put Australian values on display” using the soft diplomacy of broadcasting, and includes new services in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East,creating an additional five news bureaux in the Asia-Pacific region, making a total to 14 bureaux in all.

Britain spends $868 million on the BBC’s overseas services, France spends more than $600 million, Germany $532 million and China is spending $8 billion to expand its international services. This contrasts with the $34 million spent on Australia’s overseas broadcast services.

The sentiments are noble, but the ABC will need to secure long term bi-partisan commitment to the plan if this is to succeed. Broadcast credibility builds over decades not years. People in the Pacific still remember when the ABC cut its shortwave broadcasts and may be reticent to trust a service that could disappear with a change of policy or government. The ABC will have to convince four important sectors to make this a long term venture: The Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Finance, the Government and the Opposition.

Mark Scott will tell the audience of the Bruce Allen Memorial Lecture at Macquarie University tonight:

The ABC has a responsibility to not just reflect Australia to Australians, but to reflect Australia to the world…

Information may be power, but now the power is inevitably dispersed. Information is harder to control, with 700 million mobile phone users in China, where 607 billion text messages were sent on China Mobile last year. Or India, where over 400 million mobiles are in use, where there are some 500 television channels, of which 74 are 24 hour news channels.

And from our isolated corner of the globe, Australia has never been more connected to all that is happening elsewhere. As a nation, we feel we have a contribution to make… We have an important role to play in this new world order and we have to use all the tools at our disposal to do so. And one of those tools, is soft diplomacy.

‘Soft power,’ as it is termed, is part of the creative diplomatic response to these challenges. Soft power, according to its theorist Joseph Nye, co-opts people rather than coerces them and is the ability to shape preferences. It is more than influence. It is the ability to entice and attract. Soft power rests on a nation’s culture, values and policies.

The ABC operates Australia Network television on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and is now broadcasting in 44 countries in the Asia Pacific and passing through some 22 million homes.

Radio Australia has been run for 70 years by the ABC and has a network of 11 (and soon to be 15) twenty four hour FM stations in almost every Pacific capital. In addition, further FM stations have been established in Cambodia and Laos.

The network broadcasts on digital radio in Singapore. Radio Australia also broadcasts on shortwave in Mandarin, Indonesian, Khmer, French and Tok Pisin. Vietnamese is online in the newly launched site bayvut.com. And next week Radio Australia begins broadcasting in Burmese, its eighth language.

We may be a significant, strategic player in the G20, but our investment in broadcasting is meagre in comparison to our colleagues.

What we need to do is to take advantage of all the opportunities we have as a nation to share the Australian story – our proximity, the depth of our insight and understanding into this part of the world as well as our experience as broadcasters in the region – to ensure our voice is heard clearly and strongly amidst the increasing clamour.

If a commitment for this plan within Australia is secured, it will be a long road to secure transmission and rebroadcast licences and agreements in each country being targeted for the ABC’s expanded signal.

The majority of Australian citizens don’t need to be convinced about the worth of the ABC and its desire to be a trusted voice internationally, the organization keeps coming up as one of Australia’s most trusted brands. But it will be the institutions of state that need convincing that Mark Scott’s plan is a good one and that it can be funded long into the future.

The ABC will undoubtedly be criticized by commercial networks for what will be seen as a provocative move, but the idea has merit and is worth pursuing, as long as it does not detract from the services already being provided by the ABC to the taxpayers of Australia who fund it.

For a full transcript of Mark Scott’s speech, click here.

To see Mark Scott interviewed on ABC TV, click the link below.

The ABC Managing Director has been busy this week. He also addressed the Media 140 Conference in Sydney and confirmed the addition of many new multi-media staff (as reported some time ago on radioinfo) to the ABC’s team. He said:

“The ABC Open Project, set to launch in 2010, will see more than 50 digital media producers stationed in ABC centres around the country. These skilled producers will be able to go into local communities and work with groups or individuals to assist them in creating their own media. They will provide them with the training and knowledge to fully embrace the opportunities of web 2.0 tools.

“We see this as a vital role of the ABC: building new relationships with our audiences and seeking new opportunities for collaboration and conversation. Educating Australians to create their own media will in turn benefit other media organisations around the country as more and more people learn the skills to be able to engage using digital media.

“As part of this commitment, the ABC will launch next week the first of a series of ABC Widgets. For the first time, the ABC is giving its audience members the opportunity to add ABC content to their own websites and online spaces, as a way to promote the sharing of ABC content. The ABC has a great range of content and we want to ensure that it is available to our audience whenever and wherever they want it.”