Australia will commit A$250 million (US$164.5 million) to Southeast Asia, with A$175 million going into IFM Investors’ Asia Pacific Debt Fund to finance sectors such as renewable energy.
The other A$75 million will be allocated to a new Southeast Asia public-private partnership fund to develop essential public assets such as healthcare and education, managed by Australian infrastructure developer Plenary.
According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the allocation will “kickstart Australian investments in the region and back the growth of Australian companies”.
“These investments will boost exports and supply chains, helping grow jobs back home,” he says in a joint statement with Don Farrell, the trade minister, on October 28.
IFM Investors is owned by a collective of 15 Australian superannuation funds and a UK pension fund. Its Asia Pacific debt fund is intended to help the asset management firm to scale up financing activities in Southeast Asia across sectors including renewable energy, telecommunications and logistics,
Albanese says the investments are a “major step forward” for his government’s Southeast Asia economic strategy.
Announced two years ago, the strategy will see as much as A$2 billion of investments allocated into Southeast Asia by 2040.
