On Thursday 3 November the APEC Study Centre (ASC) at Griffith co-hosted with Morgans Financial Ltd a downtown symposium on “Should Australia Be More Open to Foreign Investment?”
Larry Crump, ASC Deputy Director, introduced the event referring to our mission and recent achievements. The panelists – Michael Knox, Chief Economist, Morgans Financial Ltd, Simon Fischer, Principal Project Officer, Trade and Investment Queensland, Andreas Chai, Director, Economic Policy Analysis Program, Griffith Business School, and Tony Makin, Director, APEC Study Centre, Griffith Asia Institute – then canvassed a range of interesting foreign investment related themes.
The discussion centred on recent global, Asia-Pacific, Australian and Queensland trends in foreign investment, why foreign investment is growth enhancing at the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels, what constitutes the ‘national interest’, what policies at State level assist foreign investment, and how immigration drives capital inflow into Australia.
In answer to the question posed for the symposium, the panel consensus was that Australia and Queensland have been very well served by foreign inward investment throughout history and that yes Australia should continue to welcome inward foreign investment.
Foreign investment in certain sectors (eg mining and advanced manufacturing) can be expected to pay greater dividends to the Australian and State economies than in others (most notably real estate). Overall, more foreign investment in a range of local industries would further bolster economic growth.
Copies of the presentations from the symposium are available below:
