New South Wales opens doors to Phl investors

MANILA, Philippines - New South Wales (NSW) in Australia is opening its doors to Filipino investors, a top official said.

In a forum yesterday, NSW Premier and Member of Parliament Barry O’Farrell said Philippine companies can invest in its $59.6-billion infrastructure program.

Other investment opportunities are in agriculture, telecommunications, clean energy, education, insurance and financial services, business process outsourcing (BPO), and property development.

Also open to investments are regional hospitals, medium-sized power plants with capacities of between 300-800 megawatts (MW); and rail and railways systems.

“There is a range of investment opportunities, including property and infrastructure,” O’Farrell told the audience composed of representatives of Philippines conglomerates, trade chambers and Australian firms already doing business in the Philippines.

The NSW official said majority of the investment opportunities will be Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in nature.

He said NSW has an infrastructure backlog, but that their PPP projects are successful, especially in the development and financing of such projects.

 â€œThat is also an advisory area where NSW companies can assist Philippine-based companies as well as the national government, as it seeks to roll out PPP infra projects,” he said.

O’Farrell added that the key to successful PPP projects is getting the planning right, making sure the dollars are invested wisely, and are importantly, that the project meet the communities’ needs for the present and the future.

He said Australia has been investing, in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), million of dollars a year on schools, hospitals and railways.

One of the largest Australian companies doing business in the Philippines is Telstra Corp. Ltd., a telecommunications and media company involved in telco networks and markets voice, mobile, Internet access, pay television and other entertainment products and services, and BPO.