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Interviewer: The Mining Indaba conference took place this week in Cape Town where there was a discussion about nationalisation and other concerns. Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean, who also attended Mining Indaba now joins us on the line to talk about this and other issues. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us.

Mr Crean: My pleasure and good afternoon.

Interviewer: You were attending the Mining Indaba this week. Firstly – your impressions?

Mr Crean: Well, resource development has huge potential to underpin the economic security of Africa going forward. Australian mining interests have a substantial stake in Africa. They are looking to expand that stake. It was important to engage not just with the mining sector, but with government ministers responsible for mining, not just to talk about the certainty necessary to support that investment but also the capacity building that we as governments and in cases in partnership with the commercial sector with the mining companies, so it’s not just the exploitation of the resource but also the capacity building as well. That was in essence the message and I held a number of bilaterals as well as major engagement with ministers and ambassadors from all around Africa as well as with the Australian mining sector.

Interviewer: Were your concerns addressed on those one-to-one meetings and consultations with the mining ministers of the continent?

Mr Crean: They were, I had very good and fruitful meetings. All mining ministers are very supportive of the Australian mining presence within their countries. They see Australian mining companies as being more consultative, more understanding of community development, stronger commitment to the community’s social responsibilities. What we were trying to demonstrate, what I was trying to demonstrate, was that we wanted to build on that brand, because the Australian Government since its been in office for the last two years has made a major commitment of increased aid to Africa, with a particular focus on capacity building and skills development, not just in the mining sector I might say. There has been some very important work in agricultural production, in drought resistant maize, in dry land farming techniques, in improving food productivity because this is another great strength of the Australian economy. So what we are seeking to do is to develop not just their resource capacity and the skills that go with it, but their agricultural capacity, skills development generally and also to start looking at this question of water sustainability.

Interviewer: Now there is always concern about this issue of trade barriers when it comes to developed countries doing business, those that are still developing like many of the countries on the continent. How did you deal with that issue especially with the ministers?

Mr Crean: Look I’ve understood the importance in trade negotiations in the last two years in dealing with developing countries. Simply calling for the opening of markets is not enough for developing countries. You’ve got to address capacity building as well. This is something we’ve done within the ASEAN free trade agreement which we’ve just concluded – a big focus on capacity building. Its something we’re doing in the Pacific with the Pacific Island nations. Papua New Guinea, for example, has got big resource developments in the gas area, again, focusing heavily on the capacity building. We take the view that there’s not much point opening the markets unless the countries are competitive enough to take advantage of them. And if there’s a competitiveness deficit due to lack of capacity, we have to start addressing that deficit. We have to concentrate on helping them build their capacity. It needs to be a partnership, not just a market opening dialogue.

Interviewer: Coming to South Africa, how involved is Australia in the mining sector in this country?

Mr Crean: It’s very involved. There is something like $20 billion of Australian investment and we have a presence in something like, in excess of a dozen countries in Africa, so it’s not just in South Africa. And in all of the cases, I had something like nine bilateral meetings but in all the cases of dialogue and discussion with Ministers they were very complimentary about the Australian presence within their country.

Interviewer: Were you expecting to hear the issue of nationalisation being debated here in South Africa?

Mr Crean: Well, they are concerned about that sort of talk, so they were very pleased to hear the very strong statement by Minister Susan Shabangu. I had an excellent discussion with her the day before. The very strong statement by her saying that nationalisation was not on the cards. If we are about trying to build the mining presence but expand it in that capacity building way that I talked of before, it won’t happen if they become uncertain about the mining regulations. Indeed, part of the dialogue that we’ve been having is to try and build greater certainty and transparency into the legislation and regulations and that too is an ongoing dialogue that we’ll have. Her statement was very well received by the mining companies present.

Interviewer: Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean, thank you for joining us.

ENDS

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