Our Place is where Investment Comes!
Projects RH
continues to receive in-ward bound investment enquiries from new potential
offshore clients and we have asked ourselves why?
I asked the team
are they all wanting investment based visas to which the answer was “No”.
The first
response was that at about USD 0.70 our dollar was said to be fairly valued.
The second response was Australis seen as a stable longer investment country with
a place as a major influencer of geo-finance and politics.
Australia / New
Zealand have developed societies and values people like. Australia has strong
two way trade ties especially in its region.
If we look at
the literally billons recently committed to our military and space programs it
is about having the “smarts” and each of these has spin-offs in the domestic
economy and whilst we could not stand alone against the USA, China or Russia
getting to Australia takes a lot of effort and our small military has some
pretty powerful “assets” which can be used for good. They need to be maintain
and serviced locally – this is a clear technology transfer with smart long-term
jobs being created.
Next I was shown
a clipping from The Weekend Australian
of 5-6 January, 2019 (p. 2) Jacquelin Magnay, “Audit pushes Australia’s G8
case”. It cited James Rogers, Director of the Global Britain Programme at the
London based Henry Jackson Society. Rogers argued that Australia was the
World’s 8th Most Influential Nation because it was a “hemispheric
power”. He attributed this to five factors 1) capacity in defending its own
interests, 2) technical expertise and national base, 3) freedoms and legal / political
structure, 4) domestic political harmony and 5) national resolve. Strategically,
Australia a) speaks English, b) is part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing
arrangement and c) it’s views are globally respected.
The recent
public statements of Australia and New Zealand in focusing their diplomatic,
aid and investment efforts in the Pacific reminds investors that our “natural”
market is the Asia Pacific – growing with huge opportunities. So if you want to
service this market then Eastern Australia is a logical place to base that
business.
Last week
Carmenza and I were in the outer Sydney suburb of Richmond working with a
client on the economics of a new sub-division – potentially homes for 40,000
people over 10 years. Given Australia has just announced it will cap it net
inward migration to 160,000 per annum plus with natural growth of our
population our domestic market will continue to grow when many of our neighbours’
markets are shrinking – Japan is a major case in point. As we sat, we heard then
saw big planes taking of – later we heard they had travelled to get ready for
the impacts of a cyclone – taking with them supplies to Darwin and collecting
people from remote islands to bring them to Darwin for safety. This something
Australia and New Zealand do across the Pacific when the need arises.
The people of
Richmond were celebrating a new airport link had been recently announcement by
the State Government. It will link by rail the CBD to Western Sydney Airport’s
Aerotropolis (200,000 new jobs) via the Hill and Scofields. From Scofields it will only be four stops to
the Western Sydney Airport’s Aerotropolis. It was a AUD 5-6 billion commitment.
This will grow the economy and will be why people are seeking to invest in
Australia for the long term.
Paul Raftery
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