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Foreign Investment Review Board
Report 2004-05
Released Wednesday, 15 March 2006.
Note: Chapter 2 was amended on 6 July 2006.
Main points
- In 2004-05, 4,360 proposals received foreign investment approval under Australia’s foreign investment policy and the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975. This compares with 4,447 the previous year, representing a decrease of 2 per cent. Of these, 3,949 approvals were in the real estate sector compared with 4,059 in 2003-04, a decrease of 3 per cent. There were 411 proposals approved in other sectors in 2004-05 compared with 388 in 2003-04, an increase of 6 per cent.1
- In 2004-05, 55 proposals were rejected by the way of a final order, a 14 per cent decrease from the 64 final orders made in 2003-04. Six divestiture orders, all in the real estate sector, required foreign persons to dispose of their interests. There were 65 interim orders (70 in 2003-04), extending the 30-day statutory decision-making period by up to a further 90 days.
- The mineral exploration and development sector was the largest industry sector by value, with investment approvals in 2004-05 of $33.5 billion (compared with $10.4 billion in 2003-04). The other major sectors were: services (excluding tourism), with investment approvals of $30.5 billion ($34.8 billion in 2003-04); manufacturing, with approvals of $22.1 billion ($23.1 billion in 2003-04); real estate, with approved investment proposals valued at $20.9 billion ($25.7 billion in 2003-04); and finance and insurance, with approvals of $11.2 billion ($2.7 billion in 2003-04).
- The United States of America was again the largest source country for foreign investment in 2004-05, involving proposed investment of $36.0 billion representing 30 per cent of total approved proposals. Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Germany were the other major sources of proposed investment approved during 2004-05, accounting for 17 per cent, 15 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.
- In 2004-05, Australia made progress on the international liberalisation of trade and investment through its engagement in bilateral, regional and multilateral forums. On 1 January 2005, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between Australia and the United States and between Australia and Thailand entered into force. FTA negotiations with the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, China and ASEAN were commenced and a joint feasibility study into an FTA with Japan was commenced.
- Worldwide Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows recovered moderately in 2004. Despite a contraction of FDI flows in the early 2000s, FDI during 2004-05 was not low by historic standards, with inflows comparing favourably with early and mid-1990s levels. While Australia continues to be a net importer of FDI, compared with the OECD as a whole which is a net exporter, over the past 15 years Australian outward FDI stocks have grown more strongly than inward FDI stocks.
- The main activities of the Australian National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises have focused on promoting the Guidelines and developing a more targeted approach to the consultation process with government agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs), the business community, and other social partners.
1 The Foreign Investment Review Board recommends caution in the use of the statistics contained in this Report. For a full discussion on the limitations of this data see Chapter 2.
Download Foreign Investment Review Board Report 2004-2005 in either portable document format (PDF) or rich text format (RTF). A HTML version is also available for browsing on-screen.
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