Robb in plea for northern investment

Australia just needs money to unlock its potential, especially in its tropical north, Trade Minister Andrew Robb says.

Tuan Dang and Son Vo at Marrakai near Darwin. ‘We’ve got no workers,’ Mr Vo says. Picture: Amos Aikman

Australia is a place with big ideas and natural assets that just needs money to unlock its potential, Trade Minister Andrew Robb will tell some of the world’s biggest ­investors during a gathering in Darwin this weekend.

Drawing on a prospectus of more than 100 investment-ready projects, he will spruik opportunities in infrastructure logistics, aquaculture, irri­gated cropping, medical research, tourism and ­renewable energy.

He will cite the $506 million, 99-year lease of Darwin Port by China’s Landbridge Group and JBS’s roughly $2 billion worth of strategic acquisitions in Australia since 2007 as evidence of investor confidence in a country that boasts the “biggest undeveloped area in the developed world” — Australia’s far north.

The gathering, the Northern Australia Investment Forum, is being described as the “first down payment” on the Coalition’s northern Australia white paper.

“For the first time in our history, there’s a marketplace around us that is able to pay, willing to pay, is paying a premium for Australia’s clean, green agricultural produce, world-class services and resources and energy products,” Mr Robb said.

“We’ve got wonderful assets in Australia, but we need capital … In 200 years, nothing has changed: we’ve still got thin capital markets and we still require foreign investment to take us to another level.”

The list of expected attendees includes representatives of the Korea Investment Corporation, China Investment Corporation, Brazil’s JBS, Britain’s Lions Head Global Partners, India’s Bharat Biotech and the Saudi Agricultural Livestock Investment Company.

It will give investors a chance for one-on-one time with project proponents. Territory Business Minister Peter Styles said his government expected a “tsunami of demand” from Asia.

Local businesses welcomed the interest, but cautioned against an overemphasis on big projects.

The director of North Aust­ralian Agribusiness Management, Ian Baker, said: “The best business model is start small, grow big. Our past is littered with start-big, grow-small failures.”

In the Marrakai region, about 80km from Darwin, Vietnamese vegetable growers Tuan Dang and Son Vo said a shortage of ­labour was the biggest obstacle to expanding their businesses.

“Everyone wants to make their businesses bigger, but we’ve got no workers,” Mr Vo said.

Both said it was almost ­impossible to find workers willing to endure long hours and the tropical heat for a minimum wage, and called on the federal government to relax ­migration rules to let more skilled Vietnamese farmers in.