Speech by Mike Rann, Australian Ambassador to Italy, at the Conference
“Australia and the G20”, Rome, 30 October 2014
Thank you very much to the Festival of Diplomacy for the opportunity to jointly host
this event tonight and thank you to all of you for coming.
I hope that by the end of the evening you will have learnt a bit more about Australia’s
G20 presidency and the growing trade and investment relationship between Italy and
Australia that is indicative of what the G20 Summit in Brisbane in a couple of weeks
will be about – jobs and growth.
THE G20
The G20 is the world’s leading economic forum and Australia has tried to give a new
impetus to the organisation under its presidency. Just a few years ago the G20 played
an important role in saving the world from another Great Depression. But we have
moved on from that and the agenda now is about working to create growth that
creates real jobs. So the G20 faces a test – can it lay the foundations for sustained
global growth? Australia believes it can and the Australian Government has sought to
facilitate this by focussing on a limited number of achievable objectives.
Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott wants this year’s G20 to be about much more
than the final communique and a photo opportunity. We want the meeting in Brisbane
to embrace real, measurable and practical steps to lift growth and create jobs.
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We got a flavour of that at the meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank
Governors in Australia in late September. Among other things, that meeting approved
the Global Infrastructure Initiative which will create a single global database, thus
better connecting investors, wherever they may be, to projects, wherever they may be
located. It also announced important measures on the stability of the banking system
and cross-border tax avoidance, something Italian Treasurer Padoan was particularly
pleased about.
The Brisbane Summit will, I’m sure, be similarly practical in its outcomes. For
example, all the G20 members have been working on growth strategies with the aim
of lifting global growth by an extra 2% by 2018 thanks to new measures.
This new growth will largely be created by structural reforms and increasing the level
of global investments, especially in infrastructure – such priorities no doubt sound
familiar to an Italian audience. In fact the priorities of the G20 fit very neatly with the
priorities of the Renzi Government – jobs and growth, crescita e occupazione.
Achieving this increase in GDP means going beyond previous G20 commitments in
order to seriously address the economic constraints impeding growth. This means
reducing red tape, increasing competition and supporting investment in infrastructure
that will have long-term and short-term economic and employment benefits.
Securing more private sector funding for critical infrastructure is crucially important.
The OECD has estimated that the global infrastructure gap will be around USD 70
trillion by 2030. There is a lot of private sector money out there, but we need to get
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the settings right and this is an area where governments can demonstrate leadership in
order to achieve real results.
The Australian G20 presidency has also sought to lift workforce participation. To this
end the proposals from the G20 meeting of labour and employment ministers in
Sydney in September have been fed into the Leaders Summit. The G20, and
especially the Australian presidency, want to see young people either “earning or
learning” and we want to see more opportunities for women to participate in the
labour market.
Australia sees the G20 as a key international forum and the timing of our presidency
is particularly appropriate given the shift of the epicenter of the global economy
towards Asia-Pacific and the need to generate economic growth, something in which
successive Australian Governments have been very successful for a number of years.
Economic ties with Asia are increasingly important to many countries, not least to
Australia. Eight of Australia’s top ten trade partners are in the Asia-Pacific region.
The world is evolving from being predominantly poor to being predominantly middle
class, with the biggest growth in India and China. The middle-class in the AsiaPacific is set to grow from 500 million in 2009 to over 3 billion in 2030.
Such dramatic change presents opportunities, but also challenges. This is why the G20
is so important. The G20 is about international economic governance and opening up
trade. Australia is a major exporter, especially to Asia, thanks to its commodities.
Italy exports its excellence in fashion, food, furniture, and machinery all around the
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globe. Exports have been fundamental in supporting the Italian economy in recent
years.
We both have much to gain from a more open trading system.
ITALY AND THE G20
As for Italy’s role in the G20, that is Ambassador Varricchio’s field. But I hope he
won’t mind if I make a couple of points.
I’m certainly not going to plunge into the topical European debate on austerity vs.
growth, but I will say that in his recent comments at the Asia Europe Forum in Milan
and then subsequently in Parliament, Prime Minister Renzi noted the G20’s emphasis
on growth and how that mirrored Italy’s economic priorities.
The G20 – and Australia in particular - wants to see a robust European economy. Not
only because we care about Europe, but because an economically strong Europe is
good for the global economy and helps drive growth and job creation everywhere. It’s
the classic win-win solution.
The Italian Government’s reform program is ambitious – so is the agenda of the G20
– but in both cases it is reasoned ambition. I admire Prime Minister Renzi’s “can do”
approach. Australians here tonight will understand when I say he has a touch of the
“Aussie battler” about him, the idea that obstacles are there to be knocked down. You
don’t have to live in Italy very long to realise what tremendous economic assets the
country has - starting with its people and its manufacturing base – but also that it is
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not currently expressing all of that potential. When you have a Ferrari you shouldn’t
keep it locked up in the garage.
Let me say a few words about Italy’s input into the G20 this year. Alongside the
involvement Minister Padoan and Governor Visco, we have seen Italy represented at
numerous other events in Australia: Think 20, Young Entrepreneurs 20, Youth 20,
Business 20, Civil 20, and other meetings on trade, employment, development, and
energy. A special thank you also to the Italian Foreign Ministry’s Stefano Mogini,
who is here tonight, for his outstanding work as co-chair with Australia on the AntiCorruption Working Group.
I have had the good fortune to meet numerous representatives of these various groups,
some of whom are here this evening, and I can assure you that your contributions to
the G20 process are valued and will all feed in to the deliberations of the Leaders
Summit. The outcomes of the Leaders Summit depend hugely on that input and I
think we’re on the right track. I thank the Italian delegations for their ideas, dynamism
and commitment.
The Leaders Summit will also produce another - very overdue – benefit: the first time
a serving Italian prime minister has visited Australia. Australia’s nearly 1 million
inhabitants of Italian origin have been looking forward to this day for quite some
time. We may now be in the third or fourth generation of the Italian families that
moved to Australia throughout the twentieth century, but the links with the “mother
country” remain strong. So Prime Minister Renzi will receive a warm welcome when
he reaches Australia.
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AUSTRALIAN INVESTMENT IN ITALY
I am also delighted that in his time in Australia Prime Minister Renzi will have the
opportunity to meet some of the key Australian business leaders whose companies are
looking with increasing interest at Italy as an investment destination.
Investment creates jobs, so I am delighted that an Australian company, Westfield, is
investing €1.3 billion to build Europe's biggest shopping centre in Milan, a project
which will create 17,000 permanent jobs on opening and a further 27,000 jobs during
the construction stage. This project is a vote of confidence in Italy’s future and may I
take the opportunity to thank the Italian institutions, including the Prime Minister’s
Office, for the interest and support they have shown in helping this project towards a
successful conclusion.
I am proud that Australian companies are among the leaders in making new
investments in Italy and I think we will see that trend increase as the Italian
Government’s privatisation plan gets underway.
ITALIAN INVESTMENT IN AUSTRALIA
But this is a two-way street. We also want to see Italian investment in Australia.
There are already a lot of Italian companies there, but we would like to see more.
Please forgive me if I set out just a few of the reasons for investing in Australia.
Australia was the only country in the OECD not to go into recession during the
financial and economic crisis. Our real GDP growth in coming years is forecast to
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exceed all other major advanced economies. We have a transparent and well-regulated
business environment and an efficient legal system. We have a skilled, multilingual
work force - Mandarin and Italian are the second and third languages in Australia. We
have excellent universities – increasingly attended by Italian students - and very
liveable cities that regularly top international tables.
Australia is at the heart of the Asia Pacific Region. We have a series of free trade
agreements with key partners in the area. Australia can be a bridge into markets in
Asia. Companies such as Prysmian, Ferrero and Iveco have chosen to establish
manufacturing facilities in Australia, while Ansaldo STS has its southern hemisphere
HQ in Brisbane.
Infrastructure companies such as Ghella, Salini Impregilo, Rizzani de Eccher and
Astaldi are all active in Australia, attracted by the major infrastructure investment
program that is underway there. Intesa SanPaolo is present in Australia, providing,
among other things, support to Italian businesses. Italy also offers Australia
technological innovation as I discovered on a recent visit to Magaldi Power which is
doing important work in the energy sector, while Giorgio Squinzi’s Mapei is about to
open a new factory in Queensland.
Recently at Milano Unica I met Paolo Zegna, Loro Piana and Nino Cerruti. I was very
pleased to hear that around 80% of the superfine Merino wool used by the best Italian
brands comes from Australia and Loro Piana has just given its annual award to an
Australian farm for producing the finest bale of merino wool in the world.
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Once again thank you for coming this evening, thank you to Festival of Diplomacy
for arranging this wonderful venue, thank you to the other speakers. Our G20
presidency may be coming to an end but I know that the friendships and contacts we
have established over this year will stand us in good stead for the future in enhancing
the rich relationship between our two countries.
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