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Ja und Nick Curtis hat seinem Ärger Luft darüber gemacht, dass ein Freihandelsabkommen unterzeichnet wird, aber andererseits Lynas noch immer auf das OK wartet: http://www.wallstreet-online.de/diskussion/...von-hightech-rohstoffen In der "The Australian" ist ein Interview mit Nick Curtis über die FTA und Lynas.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/free-trade-one-mining-firm-begs-to-differ/story-fn59niix-1226362847218
Free trade? One mining firm begs to differ
by: Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor
From:The Australian
May 22, 201212:00AM
FOR those tempted to view the free trade agreement to be signed today by Trade Minister Craig Emerson and his Malaysian counterpart Mustapa Mohamed as a business nirvana, Nick Curtis has a cautionary tale.
The Sydney-based executive chairman of Lynas Corporation has spent $700 million and seven years building and getting approvals for a plant on Malaysia's east coast to process rare earths from its mine at Mount Weld, 30km north of Laverton in Western Australia.
Mr Curtis thought the final of many approvals had been given by the Atomic Energy Licensing Agency in January, but the Malaysian government is withholding the permit for the factory to start operating.
A parliamentary committee has been set up by Prime Minister Najib Razak to consider the project.
The committee was focused on the process of the approvals, which Mr Curtis said Lynas had entirely fulfilled. In late 2007, Lynas received the tick from the environmental and other regulatory authorities, and started building the plant.
"It's a 30-40 year commitment to the country at least. You don't build and then seek environmental approval. We have gained the permissions, spent the money, and are now wondering where the goal posts really are, because they've moved," Mr Curtis said.
The factory is the subject of demonstrations led by local opposition MP Fuziah Salleh that have gained considerable traction in an election year in which the government faces the prospect of defeat for the first time since independence 55 years ago.
"Fear is a powerful political tool, and they say that we are going to irradiate Malaysia. We are asked why we don't build our factory in Australia instead," Mr Curtis said.
"But this is a crude question to ask in the context of a globalised economy. We chose Malaysia because of its infrastructure, its cost, its industrial experience and its proximity to markets, as a good global destination. And we've found the Malaysian people and environment extremely positive to work with."
He said that Lynas has already employed 350 people, all of whom are Malaysian. The mine at Mount Weld is stockpiling its output of concentrate, waiting for the factory to start functioning.
He said FTAs "are only as good as governments' willingness in these countries to play by their own rules, to operate according to their own laws".
The opposition on environmental grounds is especially frustrating, he said, because the plant's products were parts of the "green supply chain" - as essential elements in catalytic converters and electric cars among other technologies.
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