Sid Maher
National Affairs Editor
Canberra https://plus.google.com/113238264937713210151 JOE Hockey has invited more investment in Australia from Chinese state-owned enterprises, declaring such deals have won government approvals despite creating some public anxiety.
Speaking at an investment forum in Sydney before the G20 trade ministers’ meeting in Sydney at the weekend, the Treasurer said Australia, with a small population, relied on foreign investment.
His pitch for more investment, including from China, comes as the government negotiates a free-trade agreement with China that is expected to relax foreign ownership thresholds.
It will also reassure foreign investors that the rejection of the $3.4 billion takeover of GrainCorp by US agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland, was an exceptional case.
Mr Hockey said the most recent round of foreign investment had come from China.
“I confess that in Australia there has been some level of anxiety about the fact that it is state-owned enterprises that have invested,’’ he said.
“But, since coming to government we have honoured our word that this nation is open for business — that includes from state-owned enterprises in China.’’
He said there would always been a need for checks and balances on foreign investment and even the US and Japan had their own controls.
“However, since coming to government we have built upon the massive increase in direct foreign investment in Australia over the last few years,’’ he said.
Mr Hockey said that foreign direct investment was now $630 billion, a 40 per cent rise since 2008.
“I want to say to you, with my colleagues here, we are open for business and we want more,’’ he said.
Mr Hockey said in the past few months he had approved the biggest investment by Chinese state-owned State Grid, a $5bn deal to buy 19 per cent of electricity supplier SP AusNet and 60 per cent of energy infrastructure company SPI Australia in a deal worth $5bn.
He said one of the challenges Australia faced “is that we don’t have an enormous pool of domestic savings that allows us to build the nation that we have the capacity to have’’.
Mr Hockey said each year about $40bn flowed into Australia from overseas.
He said from the days of the First Fleet, Australia had relied on British investment.
In the 1970s there had been a wave of US investment and in the 1980s it had been the Japanese.
He said the current foreign investment review structure had been implemented in the 1970s to counter concern about the level of investment from the US.
