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New Hope Group wants to invest 1 billion dollars in Australia

Xinhua, February 2, 2017 Adjust font size:

China's largest private agribusiness, New Hope Group and its chairman Liu Yonghao, are planning to invest 1 billion Australian dollars (763 million U.S.) by 2020 to help grow businesses down under, according to New Hope Group's Australian chief executive officer Nick Dowling.

"I don't think there's necessarily any limit to what the chairman wants to invest in, it's really about opportunity," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The conglomerate first announced its presence in Australia after developing luxury residential buildings in 2013.

The construction in Sydney's north was then followed by a 100 million Australian dollar (76.3 million U.S.) deal which saw the Group take a stake in Queensland beef exporter Kilcoy Pastoral Company.

Chinese expenditure into Australia has seen some backlash, however New Hope Group has managed to negotiate its way through the fears of some sections of the community.

"We invest into businesses, we don't acquire businesses," Dowling said.

"We look to work with great partners that have great businesses where we can bring our resources and market access to give life to opportunities that business wouldn't otherwise have.

"It's all about giving oxygen for those businesses to grow."

In 2015, the Conglomerate spent another 100 million Australian dollars (76.3 million U.S.) buying into two of the nation's largest dairy farmers Moxeys and Perichs.

To consolidate the commitment of their Australian expansion, the company opened an Australian head office in Sydney during 2016.

"Australians are very smart, they are capable of management and they understand national conditions," New Hope Group Chairman Liu Yonghao told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"I have found many investments made by Chinese enterprise in Australia, they have acquired this, they have acquired that, but.... I think if we can develop with our Australian partners, isn't it much better?"

"The Australian government are good, they welcome Chinese and international investors as long as the investors bring benefits to Australian people, they will support."

Experts in foreign investment share this sentiment and see the only way to develop Australia's agriculture sector is to seek opportunities from abroad.

"Australia needs lots of investment to manage water better, to manage the fact (that) there is very little labor, to mechanize agriculture, and to make more use of what limited ecological resources Australia has," Murdoch University Asia Research Center fellow Jeffrey Wilson told Xinhua.

"That is going to need foreign capital, and because China is a buyer, a lot of that capital is going to come from China." Enditem