....they should be auctioned instead of a haggled sale and the proceeds
should be invested in APL cricket to beat the Indians.
"Sir John Howard" <sirjohnhoward@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:a1d42dad-b7db-4300-bb38-dad33d255552@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> China eyes $15b NSW power play
>
>
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/china-eyes-15b-nsw-power-play/2008/05/08/1210131165871.html
>
> CHINA'S largest power company has its eyes on Morris Iemma's $15
> billion sell-off, as part of an ambitious strategy to buy Australian
> power, coal and even uranium assets.
>
> China Huaneng Group has already bought power assets in Queensland and
> Singapore and now wants to greatly expand its presence in South-East
> Asia and Australia.
>
> The company has asked its "Australian team to follow these reforms and
> send suggestions back to senior management", said a source with
> knowledge of Huaneng's foreign investment plans. "The precondition is
> that Huaneng's existing businesses are going well enough," the source
> said, referring to a five-year-old stake in two Queensland generators.
>
> A Huaneng bid would boost the revenue windfall expected to flow to the
> State Government next year on behalf of NSW taxpayers. But it will
> compound the political challenge for the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd,
> as his Government struggles to process a backlog of Chinese foreign
> investment applications.
>
> China's largest coalmining company, Shenhua Group, has also been
> closely watching the NSW electricity privatisation program. But
> Chinese companies are concerned by what they see as Federal Government
> discrimination against recent Chinese investment proposals.
>
> The Herald understands that a senior Shenhua executive confronted Mr
> Rudd on the subject in Beijing last month. According to another
> Chinese executive who was at the meeting, the Shenhua executive's
> questions to Mr Rudd were "not so friendly" but they reflected broad
> Chinese concerns.
>
> "Chinese companies have got a kind of feeling that we are encountering
> unfair policies," said the executive. "We don't want any preferential
> policies, we just want fair and open competition."
>
> Australian sources confirm Chinese executives did raise investment
> concerns with Mr Rudd in Beijing. Yesterday a spokesman for Mr Rudd
> reiterated that Australia welcomes foreign investment subject to the
> national interest test applied by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
>
> Both Huaneng and Shenhua are also actively scouring eastern Australia
> for coalmines to ease an acute shortage. China mines and consumes
> about 2.5 billion tonnes of coal a year, about 40 per cent of the
> world total, but that is not enough to satisfy the industrial machine.
>
> The company shopping list also includes Australian uranium deposits,
> which it desperately wants in order to supply new-generation nuclear
> power plants it is building in Shandong province.
>
> "Besides power generation, coalmining and coal supplies, uranium is
> another area [Huaneng] are interested in for [its] own nuclear power
> generation," said the source familiar with Huaneng's Australian
> investment plans.
>
> Last year the Howard government approved a South Australian uranium
> exploration and mining application by another Chinese state-owned
> enterprise, Sinosteel.
>
> Huaneng says its overseas acquisitions "are just beginning" but
> concedes it does not need these assets in order to grow.
>
> It is already the biggest player in a national power industry that
> last year commissioned more new capacity than all of the existing
> capacity in Britain.
>
> Analysts expect the NSW sell-off will fetch about $15 billion next
> year, depending on what sale conditions Mr Iemma can thrash out with
> union and party bosses.
>
> Mr Iemma will not meet Huaneng or Shenhua officials during his
> forthcoming trip to China. Nor will he be meeting one of the world's
> richest businessmen, Li Ka Shing, when he visits Hong Kong.
>
> Mr Li owns TruEnergy, which is building a power station in Wollongong
> and is a likely bidder for the assets to be sold.
>
> After several days of pressure, the Opposition late yesterday said it
> would support power privatisation, as long as the transmission assets
> are not sold and that a safety net is put in place for pensioners and
> low income earners - commitments given by the Government already.
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