I am passionate about promoting Northern Australia, the area where I grew up and studied. I am honoured to be an alumnus of James Cook University in Townsville, Northern Queensland, an academic institute ranked in the top four percent of universities worldwide. In particular, James Cook University specialises in tropical research – coral reefs, marine biology, agriculture and medicine – among other disciplines.
Northern Australia, which comprises north Queensland, the Northern Territory and the northern part of Western Australia, covers over three million square kilometres (about 10 times the size of the Philippines, and about 40 percent of Australia’s land mass), and has a population of just over one million people. It is home to some of Australia’s most treasured national icons such as the Great Barrier Reef, the wet tropics of Queensland, Uluru, Kakadu and Cable Beach.
However, it’s not just beautiful natural attractions that you will find. Northern Australia is increasingly being recognised as an attractive place for Philippine and international firms to do business. On June 18th the Australian Government announced new plans to unlock the great potential and opportunities of the North.
The Australian Government is putting in place key policies that enable business to invest, innovate, and collaborate in Northern Australia. It seeks to integrate Northern Australia into the region, with a vision for mutual economic prosperity and security through stronger people-to-people and business-to-business links. Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory and a key northern Australian trade port which lies just over 2,000 kilometres from Mindanao, comparable to the distances from Manila to Singapore or Tokyo.
A series of policy reforms announced in the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia: Our North, Our Future will provide a welcoming investment environment, including cutting red tape for investors, and a single point of entry for all regulatory approvals for major investors. Australia will invest in infrastructure that will help lead to lower business and household costs. The White Paper includes an AU$5 billion Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility, an AU$600 million roads package in the North and an AU$100 million Beef Roads Fund which will help improve cattle supply chains.
Australia will also invest in collaborative research in the North, including with foreign partners, where there is potential for commercialisation or improved productivity and competitiveness. This includes Australia establishing a new AU$75 million Cooperative Research Centre to focus on tropical agriculture, food and medicine where pre-commercial research and development is needed to kick-start new industries. Foreign partners will be invited to collaborate in tropical health research through seed funding of AU$2 million over two years to enable it to work on trans-boundary health threats in the region.
In addition, there will be approximately AU$8.5 million in grants to attract foreign investors to support commercialisation of Australian tropical medicine research. An additional AU$6.9 million will go towards research in Australia on diseases endemic to the tropics.
To bring interested business partners together, the Australian Government will host a major Northern Australia investment forum in Darwin in late-2015. The forum will bring together international investors and focus on the new investment prospectus Northern Australia: Emerging opportunities in an advanced economy. More information on investing in North Australia is available at: https://northernaustralia.dpmc.gov.au/
I am hoping Australia’s Prime Minister, and our Foreign and Trade Ministers, will visit Manila later this year as part of the Philippines’ APEC year to further promote these exciting business opportunities in Northern Australia. Until their visits, the Australian Embassy in Manila plans to speak to select business leaders about opportunities to be part of the development to unlock the potential of Northern Australia.
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(Bill Tweddell is the Ambassador of Australia.)