HE Ms Frances Adamson
Australian Ambassador to China
“The Australia and China investment relationship: Building on strength”
Opening Comments, Invest in Australia Seminar, 3rd China Overseas
Investment Fair (COIFAIR 2011)
Beijing, 9 November 2011
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
各位嘉宾、女士们、先生们,
It is an honour to be here today to open the Invest in Australia session of the 3rd China Overseas Investment Fair.
我很荣幸，今天在这里为第三届中国对外投资合作洽谈会的澳大利亚分会致开幕辞。
The economic relationship between Australia and China has blossomed over the near 40 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries, and in particular in the period of China’s spectacular economic growth of the past two decades.
澳中建交近四十年来，澳大利亚与中国的经济关系迅速发展，尤其是在过去，中国经济飞速增长的这二十年。
Investment forms a cornerstone of this important relationship. Australia remains committed to promoting investment flows between Australia and China to further harness the potential of our deepening economic relationship.
投资是这种重要关系的基石。澳大利亚将继续致力于促进澳中之间的投资往来，以进一步发挥双边经济关系的潜力。
I trust today’s session will assist in building the investment relationship by improving understanding of our approach to foreign investment.
我相信，今天的会议将有助于加深诸位对我们外资政策的理解，从而协助建立双边投资关系。
It is my pleasure to introduce a distinguished line up of Australian guests to this session. But first I would like to make some comments about the China-Australia relationship.
我很高兴向诸位引见来自澳大利亚的贵宾。但是在此之前，请允许我首先就澳中关系发表一些看法。
China is Australia’s largest trading partner and Australia is China’s seventh-largest trading partner.
China now accounts for a quarter of Australia’s merchandise exports. A little over a decade ago China accounted for less than 5 per cent of our exports.
The bilateral relationship continues to broaden and strengthen, and the contributions of everybody here today will be important in continuing to build the sound platform that will service the long-term cooperation between our two countries.
All good relationships are built on mutual understanding. The people-to-people links between Australia and China – including the students who chose to study in our respective countries, and the tourists who visit in both directions - play an important role in this regard.
And as Australia’s Ambassador to China, I am committed to do everything I can to assist our Chinese partners as they look towards Australia and work through our systems and processes.
Australia has a number of checks and balances in place to ensure that all forms of investment, be they domestic or foreign, meet a range of community standards. These standards protect various aspects of the national interest, from protection of our natural environment and indigenous culture, through to the labour standards applied to Australian workers.
We are committed to making our regulations as transparent as possible, and stand ready to assist investors from China and elsewhere as they consider entering the Australian market.
The standards we apply to investment, from both domestic and overseas investors, help define who we are, and contribute to making Australia a desirable place to live and work and, I should add, to invest.
I am sure that this session today will contribute to this education process. And I also hope the connections made between participants at this conference will promote on-going communication and mutual understanding.
Australia has long relied on international capital to open new investment opportunities and to develop our economy. In recent years, this investment has been centred on the development of our natural resources.
Foreign investment not only provides capital for Australia’s growth, it also creates new jobs, encourages innovation and skill development, introduces new technologies and promotes healthy competition in a market economy.
We know China is looking to increase foreign investment under its “Go Out” strategy, and the message I continue to reinforce as Ambassador is “come to us”.
And I am pleased to say that China is already coming to us. In my short time as Ambassador to China, I have already heard many good news stories about Chinese investment in Australia.
Many of these profitable investments are happening in the resources sector.
YanCoal is a great success story. Its first investment was in the coal industry in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, and introduced ‘longwall top coal caving’ technology to Australia. In the process, YanCoal re-capitalised a struggling project, saving many jobs in the region, and delivering a healthy return for the company. Since this success, YanCoal has acquired Felix Resources for $3.5 billion, one of the largest Chinese investments in Australia, and has continued to make additional investments.
With the success of Chinese investment in Australia’s mining sector, we hope too that China will consider further reforms of its foreign investment regulations to allow Australian companies to lend their expertise to efforts to develop China’s resource sector and boost mineral and energy self-sufficiency.
China accounts for a modest amount of Australia’s outbound foreign direct investment, under 2 per cent. We want that to grow. We want our investment relationship to be genuinely two-way. Just as Chinese investment benefits Australia, Australian investment will also bring great benefits to China.
As China grows its economy in new directions, Australia can share its skills and experience in areas beyond natural resources – areas such as food safety, financial services, architecture and a myriad of other goods and services for which markets are still developing in China.
The growth in our relationship has been impressive, but the scope to broaden our engagement into new areas remains vast.
It is my great pleasure to introduce today several distinguished speakers from Australia. These include:
Mr Frank di Giorgio, General Manager of the Foreign Investment and Trade Policy Division of the Australian Treasury. Mr Di Giorgio’s division advises the Foreign Investment Review Board on applications to invest in Australia, and provides advice to the Australian Government on foreign investment issues more generally.
Mr Henry Wang, Senior Investment Commissioner, Greater China, for Austrade. Mr Wang will talk about the important investment promotion activities being organised through Austrade.
Mr Michael Wadley, Partner of Blake Dawson, and colleagues, will bring a legal perspective to the discussion.
Mr Corey Xu, from the Australian bank, Westpac, will provide a banker’s perspective on the investment issue.
Finally we will have a panel discussion chaired by Mr Alan Morrell, Senior Trade Commissioner, at Austrade.
All these speakers bring their own valuable insights into the investment relationship between China and Australia
Australia’s commitment to the Australia-China relationship remains absolutely firm. As Australia’s Ambassador to China, promoting the two way investment relationship is one of my key priorities.
澳大利亚始终坚定不移地维护澳中关系。作为澳大利亚驻华大使，促进双方的双向投资关系是我的首要职责之一。
I hope you find Invest in Australia session to be an interesting and valuable part of this excellent conference.
我希望大家能够在此次盛会中，感受到澳大利亚投资分会带给您的乐趣和价值。