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Australia denies telling China to back off on investments
Sydney (AFP) April 27, 2008 The Australian government Sunday denied a report Chinese firms have been told to withdraw from investing in Australian mining companies while it reviews foreign investment rules. "There's been no suggestion that China or any other investor should back off," Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said. A report last week said that at least 10 Chinese companies had pulled back their foreign investment applications under pressure from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government. The government had made it clear, in private, to the potential investors it wanted more time to consider the national interest implications of greater foreign ownership of the resources industry, The Australian said. The Chinese companies had been advised to resubmit their applications to the Foreign Investment Review Board at a later date, the newspaper said. But Ferguson said state-owned Chinese firms were treated no differently than any other foreigners seeking to buy into the mining sector. "As China makes investments, some will be rejected, some will be changed to meet our national interest test," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "That's no different to previous investments by companies out of key markets such as Japan and Korea." Ferguson however would not rule out changes to Australia's foreign investment rules to take into account the nature of China's state-owned investors. "The world generally, not only about potential Chinese investments but also sovereign wealth funds generally, is having a close look at these issues." China's insatiable hunger for resources to fuel its rapidly-growing economy has driven a mining-backed boom in Australia in recent years. In February, China's state-owned Chinalco took a nine percent stake in the world's third biggest miner Rio Tinto in conjunction with US-based Alcoa and raised the prospect of expanding its stake further. The Chinalco move came as the world's largest miner BHP Billiton made a play to take over Rio -- something which China opposed because of the potential for the combined company to have too much power over commodity prices. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
European power plants boosting coal use
Civitavecchia, Italy (UPI) April 24, 2008 High oil and natural gas prices, coupled with increased demand, are driving Europe's return to coal-fired power plants, an industry official says. |
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