China and India Business Mission

The Hon. HENRY TSANG: My question is addressed to the Minister for State Development. Would the Minister inform the House about the Government's recent business mission to China and India?

The Hon. IAN MACDONALD: What a successful mission it was too.

[Interruption]

The Hon. Melinda Pavey should get back to her booth up north. If she stays there for another year, she may regain 1 per cent of the vote. I am pleased today to inform the House that the business mission was very successful in promoting the strengths of New South Wales' business, tourism and education capabilities in both China and India. The Government wants to increase opportunities in Asia, particularly in the world's booming economies of China and India. This was the largest-ever delegation to leave New South Wales, and the Premier and I were there to tell them that New South Wales is open for business. We met with government and business decision makers in both countries to ensure they understand that New South Wales has expertise and experience relevant to the needs of their growing economies. We were accompanied by 64 representatives from New South Wales companies—including all the major New South Wales coal companies—universities, government departments and organisations.

China is already our State's biggest trade partner, with two-way merchandise trade valued at $15.4 billion in 2006-07—surpassing our trade with Japan. According to research by Austrade, if the Chinese economy keeps growing at its current rate it will be as big as the United States economy within the decade and twice as large as the United States economy by 2050. Coal is currently our fourth largest export, in value, to China. In 2006-07 New South Wales exported 91.5 million tonnes of coal, which is worth $6.2 billion dollars in income. Of this total, New South Wales exported 2.4 million tonnes of predominately thermal coal to China in 2006-07, which is worth an estimated $180 million. Coal will continue to figure prominently in world energy markets for some time, and booming economies such as China are likely to constitute high-growth markets. It is likely that there will be a considerable increase in demand, which New South Wales coal production is gearing up to meet.

I am pleased to add that clean coal technology was a major discussion point on the trip with all energy companies. I constantly pushed the need for clean coal technology and the fact that New South Wales was fully capable of meeting the demands of the Chinese market over coming years. This was a major theme of my meetings with senior representatives of the major Chinese power generators and coal companies, including China Shenhua Energy Company, China Coal group, China Guodian corporation, China Datang group and Guangdong Yudean group. Clean coal technology and associated services are likely to become more important longer-term opportunities as environmental standards and emissions targets are adopted. As part of my visit, I signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Huaneng group, the largest of China's power companies, which produces about 8.5 per cent of China's domestic-installed generating capacity. The memorandum of understanding is aimed at developing a cooperative relationship in mineral resources and energy and will see closer cooperation on clean coal technologies. In fact, this group is a member of the FutureGen project in partnership with the United States. It also is involved in a GreenGen proposal to install a new clean coal-fired power station in Tianjin in 2009 to be linked with resources off shore for storage.

Showing New South Wales is "Open for Business" was the constant theme of the visit. In Hong Kong I met with senior executives from Hong Kong's two major power generators, China Light and Power and Hong Kong Electric, which is part of the Cheung Kong Group, to promote New South Wales coal and discuss clean energy projects. China Light and Power, which operates under the brand name TRUenergy, is the fifth largest energy retailer in Australia. TRUenergy is currently constructing a new, state-of-the-art gas-fired power station near Wollongong. That project is scheduled for completion in summer 2008-09. The New South Wales Government will continue to target China and India as priority markets to bring jobs, investment and prosperity to this State. I would expect members on the other side of the House to support us in this endeavour.