Page 3622 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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Itochu is part of the consortium delivering Queensland’s new generation rollingstock PPP project. The project involves the delivery of new rail rolling stock, the maintenance of trains for 32 years and the construction and maintenance of a purpose-built maintenance centre.
The meetings provided an opportunity to follow up on these companies’ interest in capital metro and to offer reassurance of our commitment to deliver the project under a PPP model.
I also met with Mitsubishi Estate, a major real estate developer in Japan, which has established a leading position in diverse sectors related to real estate, retail property, residential property and hotels. The company currently operates out of America, the United Kingdom, China and Singapore. Whilst in Tokyo, I took the time to meet with Mitsubishi Estate to discuss the major investment opportunities currently available in Canberra.
The return trip to Singapore also facilitated a follow-up meeting with Tourism Australia’s manager for Singapore and Indonesia, Mr Brent Anderson. VisitCanberra has a strong relationship with Tourism Australia in Singapore, with the latter providing support for the ACT government’s trade missions to the region in recent years, in particular in relation to ongoing negotiations around direct flights to Canberra. As part of maintaining this ongoing relationship, VisitCanberra will continue to work with Tourism Australia and key travel and trade partners in Singapore to increase destination awareness and knowledge of what our city has to offer.
Similarly, I also met with the Australian High Commissioner to Singapore, Mr Philip Green, to seek ongoing support and advocacy for ACT business and tourism and was certainly heartened to learn of the growing national focus on business and trade opportunities between Australia and Singapore, which validates the territory government’s strong focus on this market.
Further, in an effort to seek ongoing support and advocacy for ACT business and investment opportunities in Japan, I met with the deputy head of mission at the Australian embassy, Mr Tom Connor, and senior trade commissioner Ms Leonie Muldoon whilst in Tokyo. Mr Connor provided me with a detailed briefing on Japan’s program for economic revitalisation, based on the three arrows of fiscal, monetary and broad economic reform. He also reinforced the importance and strength of the Australia-Japan relationship at a variety of levels. As with my previous meetings in Singapore, Mr Connor was also bullish regarding educational opportunities for Australian institutions, noting a range of grants that are currently available in this sector.
I also took the opportunity to meet with Global Spectrum, a partner in the Singapore sports hub consortium. The sports hub is one of the world’s largest sporting infrastructure PPPs. During our previous visit in June, we viewed the then under construction sports hub facility, which opened shortly thereafter. On this occasion we took the opportunity to discuss year-round activation and commercialisation models
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