Ambassador Kusaka s Remarks Second Japan-Australia Infrastructure Networking Meeting 23 February 2017 1. Greetings Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen; It is a great pleasure for me to deliver this speech as Ambassador of Japan to Australia on this wonderful occasion of the Second Japan-Australia Infrastructure Networking Meeting. Let me begin by saying what an honour it is for us to host this event and have you all in attendance. My talk today will offer some background information on this meeting and seek to illustrate why we chose to hold this event in the way we have. 2. Introduction Major transport-related infrastructure projects are currently being rolled out across Australia in support of the country s growing population, which is expanding at the rate of around a million people every three years. Such projects represent an enormous opportunity for Japanese companies. Moreover, Australian governments have shown considerable interest in boosting infrastructure-focused investment from Japan, as demonstrated during visits made to Japan towards the end of last year respectively by Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews; Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk; Northern Territory Chief Minister, Michael Gunner and NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Andrew Constance. Moreover, South Australian Energy Minister, Tom Koutsantonis has announced plans to visit Japan this year and it is expected that during the trip he will invite Japanese companies to bolster their involvement in the Australian renewable energy sector. 3. G2G Meeting In addition to these visits made to Japan by Australian state government leaders, based on
the joint statement made by Prime Ministers Turnbull and Abe in December 2015, Japan s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and Australia s Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development kicked off a high-level meeting last November. This meeting focused on key aspects of infrastructure development, including urban transportation and high speed rail. The meeting also enabled participants to share their experiences and challenges in planning, delivering and maintaining transport infrastructure in in major cities with increasing populations. I am very pleased to note that some of the distinguished guests we have here today also attended the high-level meeting last year. These are, namely: Mr Mike Mrdak, Secretary of Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development; Mr Tim Reardon, Secretary of Transport for NSW; and Mr Darren Crombie, Deputy Director General of QLD Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your invaluable contributions to making the high-level meeting a resounding success. The high-level meeting will be held on an ongoing basis and we hope to maintain close contact with you as we pursue our shared goal of promoting strong partnerships between Japanese and Australian companies in the area of infrastructure. I also would like to mention the Prime Minister Abe s visit in Sydney in January also strengthened relationship between Australia and Japan in tourism when Prime Minister Abe attended the Japan-Australia Tourism Seminar. In fact, the two Prime Ministers spent close to eight hours together on January 14 th talking a wide range of issues, and forged a close personal relationship based on trust. Now they often talk and exchange their views over the phone on various issues, including economic ones. We will further promote this kind of economic and other relationship between Australia and Japan. 4. First Meeting In parallel with efforts being made between the governments of our two countries, given the highly developed nature of Australia s infrastructure market and its PPP mechanisms, it is
essential that Japanese businesses create a close network with Australian companies. Given these circumstances, the Government of Japan is aiming to support Japanese firms in their efforts to enter the Australian infrastructure market. It is the hope of the Government of Japan that these efforts will lead to mutually positive outcomes for Japan and Australia and the businesses concerned. Based on such considerations, the Embassy of Japan in Australia last July held the first Japan-Australia Infrastructure Meeting The meeting itself was attended by 121 persons representing 73 organisations. Those who addressed the group included high-ranking officials from federal and state governments, as well as Minister Constance from NSW. Presentations and speeches were also made by many of the Japanese and Australian firms in attendance. Even more importantly, in parallel with the main meeting, 79 one-on-one meetings were conducted by 56 organisations. 5. Results and Survey After the first meeting, to assist in providing further opportunities for networking and to do so in an even more effective manner, the Embassy sought feedback from the firms involved. In this regard, questions were posed to the businesses on topics including the outcomes of the meeting, the theme of the meeting, the way in which the meeting was coordinated, interest in future meetings and so on. From this feedback, the Embassy found that more than half of the Japanese firms that attended remained in contact with representatives of the Australian government and the Australian private sector, while 40 percent of Japanese businesses were in contact with two or more companies they met at the meeting. Meanwhile, over 90 percent of Australian businesses were in contact with at least one Japanese firm and one quarter were in contact with more than four of the Japanese companies they had met at the meeting. In addition, there were also examples of Japanese firms that made presentations on their strengths having become involved in major transport projects with Australian companies as part of consortia they established following the meeting. In this respect, the Embassy was able to confirm that the meeting had led to the
establishment of very meaningful partnerships between Japanese and Australian businesses. Regarding questions raised on the theme of the meeting, results indicated strong interest in transport infrastructure which was the theme of the first meeting as well as other areas, including renewable energy and water infrastructure. 6. Second Meeting In light of this highly positive feedback, the Embassy determined to hold further infrastructure networking meetings in this style. I am happy to report that today we again have more than 100 representatives from Japanese and Australian firms in attendance, as well as senior representative from Australia s federal, state and territory governments. As such I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all those officials for the great efforts they have made to join us today. At this point, I would like to make special mention of some of the individuals and groups that have been instrumental in organising this event. Mr Bob Seidler, AJBCC As Vice President of the Australia Japan Co-Operation Committee, Mr Seidler has provided invaluable advice and support concerning this event, from the planning stage of the first meeting. Mr Jason Hayes, PwC Mr Hayes has played a central role in planning today s meeting, including in relation to the provision of this office and making arrangements for today s lunch and the panel discussion. Mr Masayuki Ohba, KPMG As an advisor to the Embassy on infrastructure matters, Mr Ohba assisted in analysing the results of the surveys received following the first meeting, and also provided considerable input into the planning of today s event. Today s meeting would also not have been possible without the immense support of our partners for this event, the AJBCC, PwC and KPMG. Thank you all very much for your contributions.
We may ask the support of other businesses in attendance today for support for future meetings and we hope that you might be open to the prospect of involvement of this kind as well. 7. Structure of the Meeting I will now touch on some of the main features of today s meeting. Last night, we held a pre-dinner, which many of you attended. I hope this was useful in developing connections with each other and discussing the expertise and aspirations of your respective businesses. The speech by Mr Mario D Elia of PwC on opportunities for Japanese and Australian businesses to collaborate in Asia was certainly a highlight of the evening. Accordingly, I would like to thank Mr D Elia for his insightful remarks. Representing the federal government, we have Secretary Mrdak and Mr Brad Archer. This morning, Secretary Mrdak and Mr Archer will provide updates on the infrastructure industry focusing on the topics of transport infrastructure and renewable energy. We will then hear presentations from high-ranking representatives from the governments of NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT. After the coffee break, Mr Gary Bowdicth from the University of Sydney will make a speech on the theme of Shifting the Infrastructure Mindset to the Long Game. The talk by Mr Bowditch is based on his recent publication, and Mr Bowditch has kindly provided copies of the publication for you to take. Following the speech by Mr Bowditch, we will hold two panel discussions. This is a new feature we have included in this meeting. The discussions will focus respectively on the themes of transport and renewable energy. The panel itself will be made up of experts in the two fields from Japanese and Australian companies. The transport discussion will be facilitated by Mr Bob Seidler, and Mr Damian McNair from PwC will facilitate the discussion on renewable energy. Thereafter, there will be a lunch held in this room and I hope that this (relaxingly) informal arrangement will also provide an opportunity for you to get to know each other and share information on your businesses and interests.
After this, one-on-one meetings will be held based on the preferences you provided. Unfortunately, in some cases we were not able to accommodate all the requests due to our limited time and space and I thank you for your understanding in this regard. I can also say that we have tried to arrange seating in a manner that broadly reflects your meeting requests, so please speak to those around you and employ the coffee break as another chance to develop your networks. 8. Conclusion I hope the style and structure of the meeting works well for you all and promotes significant outcomes for the infrastructure businesses of both Japan and Australia. In order to promote networking between Japanese and Australian firms over the longer term, the Embassy intends to hold further infrastructure networking meetings going forward. To this end, the Embassy will reflect on the outcomes of this meeting to ensure that future events provide even greater support to the development of valuable partnerships in the area of infrastructure between Japanese and Australian businesses. Accordingly, I would like to ask you all to assist us in completing the questionnaire that we have provided to you after today s meeting. To conclude, I would like to thank all of you for coming to Canberra from around Australia. I trust you will enjoy the meeting and hope it will contribute to substantially deepening the invaluable business and economic relationship of Japan and Australia. Thank you.