Page 3621 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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As part of these meetings, I provided an update on the territory’s 2014-15 budget, our capital and infrastructure program, details of the key issues supporting our AAA credit rating and our future borrowing plans.
We received strong positive feedback from the bond investor update, including a sense of increased awareness and improved understanding of the ACT. I am pleased to advise that current and potential investors generally indicated a positive view of the government’s borrowing strategy and objectives, including our enhanced debt financial markets presence, with the increasing number of benchmark bonds resulting in improved liquidity and investor diversity.
As part of attracting new international investors to the territory, particularly in relation to our two largest infrastructure projects, city to the lake and capital metro, I met with a number of companies in Singapore and Japan, starting with GIC Private Ltd, formerly known as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. GIC is one of two Singaporean wealth funds set up to preserve the value of Singapore’s foreign reserves through international investments.
I took the opportunity to reinforce the ACT government’s strong interest in Singapore and outlined some of the investment opportunities available in our city such as light rail, tourism, aviation, renewable energy and city to the lake. GIC was particularly keen to note the growing international student market in the ACT and expressed a strong interest in investing in residential student accommodation. I have undertaken to provide a connection with relevant parties at the ANU and the University of Canberra.
SMRT Corporation, Singapore’s public transport provider, has expressed an interest in bidding for the capital metro project and representatives attended the recent industry briefing in Canberra. Whilst in Singapore, I met with the CEO and president of SMRT and his broader team. SMRT are considering forming a consortium to bid for the project and we welcome their interest.
We also met with the chairman and chief executive officer of ComfortDelGro, a multinational land transport company headquartered in Singapore, operating over 46,000 vehicles, including bus, rail and taxi, in seven countries. In Australia the company has a presence here in Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and across the border in Queanbeyan. I previously met with ComfortDelGro back in June, and this most recent meeting provided an opportunity to reiterate the investment opportunities associated with capital metro and other economic opportunities, including city to the lake.
Capital metro and city to the lake were also the focus of meetings in Tokyo with Marubeni, Mitsubishi Estate and Itochu. Marubeni and Itochu are in the top five Japanese general trading companies. Each has an existing presence in Australia, and both have expressed interest in the capital metro project.
Marubeni was the largest equity investor in the Gold Coast’s light rail PPP project and its consortium Northwest Rapid Transit has been selected by the New South Wales government as the preferred operator for the north west rail link project, which will be a PPP to deliver the first stage of Sydney’s new rapid transit rail network.
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