Q+A: $2bn pipeline: how Aussie businesses can win work in the Pacific
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Fearing Greed Q&A, where we ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more. I'm Sean Aylmer. Australian businesses are under pressure at home, but elsewhere in the region, a major pipeline of infrastructure work is opening up across the Pacific. A new platform from Austrade is aiming to make it easier for local companies to see and win that work. Backed by groups like the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. Tim Houghton is Trade Commissioner for the Pacific at Austrade. Tim, welcome to Fear and Greed. Bulwanaka from Fiji. Tell me, what's driving the opportunity in the Pacific right now?
Oh, there's a lot going on. The opportunity is two-sided though. So on the Pacific side, there's a lot of development finance that's come in the last five years.
What opportunities exist for Australian businesses in the Pacific?
So as you say, Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Australian government is out here in force, New Zealanders, the European Union, the list goes on. So there's heaps of development finance coming into the region. But from the Australian business side, there's opportunity as well. So the Pacific Islands don't necessarily have heaps of domestic capacity to absorb all of this finance. So if you're looking at building a $100 million project in a country with 10,000 people in it, you start asking questions about what expertise do you need to bring in to actually deliver it you can't just build an airport magically so there's a lot of expertise and opportunity in australia to plug in there's a lot of money coming in there's a lot of opportunity a lot of impactful work and a need for the australian expertise to support
Okay, so what sort of, I mean, you mentioned an airport there, but what sort of projects are you talking about in the region? What sectors are you talking about?
What role does the Austrade platform play in connecting businesses to projects?
Ultimately, I'm interested in whether it's, you know, just big business in Australia or the medium sized businesses that can get involved or smaller even. But, you know, firstly, what are the projects and sectors that we're talking about?
Yeah, fair question. And it does range from 100 million, 180 million actually is the largest. There's a lay port redevelopment. So that's 180 mil US. Goes right down to small consulting jobs. I like to keep it simple in my own brain. And so there's three categories. One is civil works. So if you're a builder and that could be in transport, water, energy, social infrastructure, there's schools and hospitals. There's really cool projects in social infrastructure as well. So that's on the sectoral side, but it does range in value from big to small. There's consulting jobs. That's the second sort of category. So if you're into feasibility studies or engineering, there's lots of opportunity there too. And the third is supply.
And that applies to all sorts of different things. It could be solar panels. It could be water pumps. It could be timber and steel and all sorts of things. So there is really a lot of opportunity across the board, which makes it particularly exciting and makes that website that you mentioned really important so people can make the pipeline relevant to them. rather than me trying to tell every little thing that's going on across the region.
Okay. So, the website, so it's a new platform from Austrade, isn't it? What's the website name?
So, if you go into pacificinfrastructure.org, basically what it does is answer one of the questions I've had for as long as I've been out here, which is what's really happening. There's a lot of chatter about who's investing in what. But to have it actually in a website where you can scroll around, filter it, make it relevant for your business is such a transformative thing, let me tell you. When you've got up to 16 different markets, you've got all these different financiers, you get lost. And I get lost as the trade commissioner for the region, Sean, so I can't imagine how you'd go if you're an industry partner looking at entering the market. So that's the website. We've just launched it as of last week with a whole range of partners.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:06–0:53
2
What opportunities exist for Australian businesses in the Pacific?
0:53–1:51
3
What role does the Austrade platform play in connecting businesses to projects?
1:51–7:42
4
What types of infrastructure projects are available in the Pacific region?
7:42–11:09