LTL,"Australia's landscape is becoming more crowded and...

LTL,

"Australia's landscape is becoming more crowded and
complex"...absolutely!

Australian April 19/13

'What Does China Really Want From Australia'.

It wants to be able to invest up to one billion at a
time without having to seek FIRB approval.

Almost all its investments to date have come from the
State-Owned Enterprises which dominates its domestic
economy.All such SOE investments-from whichever country
require the FIRB tick,which has always in recent years,
been given after delays or with strings attached.

Australia remains-just-China's biggest target for over-
seas investment.No great disaster in this space.
Australian investment in China is tiny,partly because of
our own failure of spirit and persistence,but mainly
because the barriers remain varied and insurmountable.

But Chinese lobbyists and diplomats continue to complain
of "discrimination" against their investment- even while
they are at the same time seeking special treatment.

Trade minister Craig Emerson stated that China wants to
go from "zero to a billion"-we aren't in a position given,
community sentiment,to lift that to a billion dollars-
so that is where we are stuck-the community wouldn't
accept that,nor would the opposition.

The opposition has said it want's the threshold for
private investments to be reduced to $15 million with
Tony Abbott saying in Bejing in 2012,that SOE proposals
will face a tough time.

So the bottom line is that while Emerson gamely says,
"There are many paths to the top of the mountain" the
present paths don't look too promising.Maybe China's
new leadership wants to tread water until it faces a
likely new team in Canberra,thus its ambit claim.

*******

From the same source...

Australia a superpower at last? A Food Superpower.
This was the great hope being paraded at the Global Food
Forum in Melbourne last week.And its a hope that hinges
on Asian demand.

This is being felt by exporters-and is anticipated to
grow exponentially as the Asian middle class expands.
The figures are many and monstrous-including the apparent
need for a $1 Trillion future investment in Agriculture.

The mood at the conference resembled the buzz that
participants began to feel at resource conferences twelve
years ago,when the Dotcom boom had fizzled out-and the
speck miners that had rebadged themselves as net players
had come to grief.

Manufacturing was becoming commodified as China Inc began
to supply the world.And thanks chiefly to the demand from
booming China and elsewhere in Asia,mining was back-not
only in demand ,but prices as well.

The mood last week,too,was one of excitement,of being in
on the ground floor of something big,moving from the
mining boom-to the Dining Boom.Here at last was a way for
Australia to reinvent its manufacturing base,adding value
to its Agriculture.

The level of participation was remarkable in its powers
and wealth and intensity-far heavier than a conference
on Agriculture would have attracted just a year ago.

Anthony Pratt,chairman of Visy,spoke of Australia fronting
the second green revolution,quadrupling our exports to
feed 200M people-and that's just the starting point,with
the middle class in Asia growing,he forecasts to 3 Billion
consumers.Anyone who lives in-or travels regularly to Asia
is aware of the amazing international range of foods that
upwardly mobile families there now consume in restaurants
and at home.

This of course throws up new questions,including the need
for huge infrastructure investment-such as in the tropical
north,where Andrew Robb [opp finance spokesman]wants to
concentrate effort to convince the broader public of the
need for greater foreign investment in Agriculture and
infrastructure.

What underlines the seriousness of intent is that we
are no longer so snooty about NZ.We are now prepared
to acknowledge that the Kiwis are doing exceedingly
well in this space and we have much to learn from them.

That's the good news,and it is now even driving Govt
policy-with Craig Emerson admitting that the new "Mini
Package" trade deal we are negotiating with China would
mirror the free trade agreement that NZ signed five years
ago.

*******

On top of that,the RBA is gearing up to invest 5% of its
$38 billion in foreign currency assets in China.This
unprecedented move is part of a bigger plan to strengthen
ties with Australia's biggest trading partner.

*******

In reference to "Chinese lobbyists and some diplomats
complaining of discrimination against their investments"

Try this for size...


Chinese property developer Shanghai Zhongfu won sole
rights recently to develop 15,000 hectares of irrigated
land in the Kimberly region-after the State and Federal
Govt spent $510 million of tax payer funds building road,
irrigation,port and local community infrastructure to
support the deal.

This virtually unknown private Chinese company has been
handed all the available land in the second phase of the
Ord irrigation scheme for a peppercorn rent.Provided it
is cleared,developed,farmed and a sugar mill built.

The FIRB blocked the $252 million bid by state owned China
Nonferrous Metal Mining to acquire Lynas in 2009.And yet
they allow the world's most populous nation to vacuum up
our prime AG soils at an alarming rate.

What the Chinese are doing is legal and above board and
are far sighted in their actions-what a pity the Aussie
psyche doesn't reflect their thinking-for once we lose
our land to foreign interests we lose our rudder.

Australia must ensure that a major percentage of our
mines and prime AG soils remain in our hands to protect
us from the coming food and finite-mineral resources,
hopefully Tony Abbott will shine in this department.

There will come a time when Northern has drilled up an
an historic resource and Dysprosium is in chronic short
supply and the CYG make shareholders an offer too good to
refuse... what will we do then? :)

Go Well Guys,
HM