More grist for the mill..
Joe Hockey in a speech to a business group said recently....
"Australia's economic future remains 'first and foremost' in
the Asia pacific region. It is our future its also our destiny."
And how right he is-for today Jien just harped Northern's bow
....again!
****
Update... The Australian-- May 23/15 [ABB]
Ord a 'Pretty Big Bang For Your Buck'.
The Abbott government has chosen the Ord river in east Kimberley
as 'centerpiece' of its plans to develop wild northern Australia. And
the soon to be released Northern Australia Policy will include $140
million of funding to raise the wall of vast lake Argyle by 4 meters,
adding 5000gl of water to the lake,equivalent to ten [10] Sydney
harbours.
The budget included a $5 billion fund to be made available to help
private investors and companies jointly develop vital infrastructure
in Australia's north,from roads [sealed] ports,irrigation channels,
trains and airports,to processing plants and bigger towns.
The two big game-changers for the Ord have been the successful
arrival of 'foreign investment' in the form of KAI as the second stage
land expansion and the changing awareness by traditional owners
that agricultural development and investment holds the key to
future prosperity.
Last week two Chinese businessmen arrived with $150 million to spend,
they toured the Ord with billionaire Wu Pui Ngai-president of Zhongfu,
the Shanghai company that was awarded 13,000 ha of scrub land two
years ago and today are the fertile irrigated fields of Kununurra.
The trio are also interested in developing the shallow port of Wyndham
so it can take 3,000 tonne grain ships exporting sorghum and other
grains to China-building abattoirs, [Twiggy will be delighted] feedlots,
funding seafood processing plants,cotton gins and privately owned freight
lines.
****
With this changing tide of fortune [all about timing] comes the reshaping
of NTU. The Chinese are 'wide awake' while the Aussies turn over in their
sleep. There are threats,opportunities and trends that will affect all of us.
Surviving and thriving will take skill and the ability to think beyond our
back yard.
The RE scene is being reset and the rules rewritten. Only by fostering
innovation and the business and research investments that drive it can
companies such as Northern surge forward and become global contributors
to a diminishing DY resource.
No doubt there is a buzz coming from management that suggests a deep
sense-of joy-doing something as well as it could be done. And so it is, that
the world we create-good-or-bad,is ultimately the world that comes back
to us.
HM.
PS..And it just got a whole lot cheaper doing business in the Kimberley
(20min delay)