ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – Australia is ready to establish a Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility worth A$2 billion managed by the Australian Export Financing agency. This was announced by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his speech at the CEO Forum at the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, Tuesday, March 5 2024.
Albanese said that this builds on its infrastructure technical assistance in particular the Partnership for Infrastructure Program for which it committed to provide additional funding of A$140 million dollars.
“This will support ASEAN’s efforts to increase infrastructure development, including early stage project preparation, and accelerate regulatory reform to attract more diverse and quality infrastructure financing,” explained Albanese.
His party then also appointed ten Business Champions, namely senior Australian business leaders. They will be the main supporter of Australia’s trade and investment relations with countries in Southeast Asia.
Next, Australia also launched new ‘Landing Pads’ in Jakarta, Indonesia and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam as regional hubs to encourage Australian technology exports in these two countries and drive Southeast Asia’s digital transformation.
“We have seen, with our first Landing Pad in Singapore, that this model helps businesses scale their technology and go to market. “We always listen to the region and respond to their priorities,” he explained.
Australia is also increasing access to visas with longer validity periods for Southeast Asian tourists. If previously it was only three years, now it is 5 and 10 years.
It said the move was intended to show the country was open for business, tourism and trade. He also said that Australia wanted to create a better environment for business.
For the record, the value of two-way trade between ASEAN and Australia in 2022 will be recorded at more than A$178 billion, greater than Australia’s two-way trade with Japan or the United States (US).
Then, two-way investment between ASEAN and Australia is also worth S$307 billion.
“But we want to do more, to support regional growth and realize mutual benefits,” he explained. (AT Network)
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