Time to get growth ball rolling, says Rinto Tinto CEO Sam Walsh

ONE of the world’s most powerful mining executives has urged G20 leaders to remove barriers to growth.

ONE of the world’s most powerful mining executives has warned that there is “no room for complacency” as he urges G20 leaders to remove barriers to growth.

Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh said the target of adding 2 per cent to world growth — at the heart of Australia’s agenda for its G20 presidency — was “the right way to go”.

“There is no room for complacency; we need to get the policies and programs in place to boost economic activity as soon as possible,” Mr Walsh said.

He also gave strong backing to the progress on an Australian-led plan to help funnel trillions of dollars into infrastructure by setting up a new global information-­sharing hub.

The Australian can also reveal that G20 business adviser Robert Milliner will warn today that plans to lift world growth by at least $2 trillion “are but a hallucination” if they are not properly executed by G20 countries.

INTERACTIVE: G20 explained

A departure by any of the G20 countries from the reform agenda “will mean a significant opportunity cost”, Mr Milliner will say.

He will argue that growth must come through enhanced productivity because the ability of governments to use monetary or fiscal levers to drive it is so limited.

“Developing economies are no longer driving growth and while the United States economy is showing positive signs the concerns about Europe are worsening,” Mr Milliner will say.

He will address a forum of G20 experts in Brisbane, where Mr Walsh will also talk.

The comments come a day after BHP Billiton chief executive and B20 trade taskforce chairman Andrew Mackenzie declared investment in trade-related infrastructure such as deeper ports and better roads to support trade to be “pivotal” to this week’s G20 talks.

Meanwhile, Telstra boss David Thodey said yesterday that the global infrastructure hub should not be involved in “picking winners”.

Arguing that low global interest rates meant there was never “a more conducive environment” to tap funds, Mr Thodey said it was “a great time for leaders to step up and to be bold”.

“It’s only through investment that you drive growth … the people who create value and improve quality of life are those who ­invest,” Mr Thodey said.

Mr Thodey — who chairs the infrastructure and investment taskforce within the B20 — said the plan for a global infrastructure hub was “getting very serious consideration”.

The Prime Minister has put a four-year time limit on the hub to stave off objections from some G20 nations, with Mr Thodey saying yesterday its effectiveness should be reviewed after that.

“But always the better jobs in life are the ones where you set out to do yourself out of a job because you’ve done your job to stimulate investment,” he said.

The private sector had shown “a great deal of support” for the project after all countries were canvassed, he said.

Mr Thodey was not concerned that China’s new infrastructure bank would overshadow the push to unlock infrastructure spending.

“The availability of funds to help fund developing countries in getting big infrastructure projects up is welcomed, as lots of regional development banks are doing,” he said.

“So we are supportive of that. But how it is done is a matter for the government to determine so we do not have a view on the actual operation of that entity.”