On Tuesday 17/11 Mark Stariha as Treasurer of the Slovenian Australian Chamber of Commerce attended a presentation organised by DFAT on the Global Infrastructure Hub. The introduction was given by Ms Rhonda Piggott, DFAT NSW State Director, the presentation by Mr Christopher Heathcote, CEO of Global Infrastructure Hub
The Global Infrastructure Hub was setup at the 2014 G20 meeting with a 4 year timeframe.
http://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/invest-in-nsw/news-and-events/news/g20-leaders-establish-sydney-as-global-infrastructure-hub
http://www.smh.com.au/business/g20/international-funding-for-sydneybased-infrastructure-hub-20141116-11nt4t.html
http://globalinfrastructurehub.org/
“The GIH is designed to assist governments with capacity-building in regard to infrastructure development, by sharing best practice approaches.”
Its goal is not to fund or organise infrastructure projects, but to examine best practices for getting Infrastructure projects off the ground. They are looking at how to reduce the obstacles/problems in place, specifically in regard to government regulations and for developing countries. They are also looking at best practice to encourage PPP (public private partnership). They do not organise funding for infrastructure projects, but can put countries in touch with the Global Infrastructure Fund run by the World Bank, but also with various private investment groups.
DFAT – Global Infrastructure Hub presentation – Chris Heathcote
DFAT – Global Infrastructure Hub presentation – Rhonda Piggot
The G20 identified that large scale infrastructure projects have short and long term benefits for people and their countries. In the short term, eg. employment, skills building, knowledge growth and expertise. In the long term, eg. benefits from transport links, cost of goods transports, alleviating for example water issues by building dams, reducing pollution etc. The G20 see promoting large scale infrastructure projects as particularly important to developing countries
Christopher Heathcote would be happy to meet and discuss direct with countries representatives any useful application of the GIH to them. He was a short time ago in Brazil looking at how to speed up infrastructure projects. He might be inclined to do the same in Slovenia if there is a need.
Mark Stariha, Treasurer, Slovenian Australian Chamber of Commerce