27 February, 2017
Foreign Policy Whitepaper Taskforce
RE: Foreign Policy White Paper
I am pleased to provide a submission into your Foreign Policy Whitepaper consultation
process.
Entura is a specialist power and water consulting firm, serving clients in Australia and
internationally across many countries in the Asia-Pacific region and southern Africa.
As part of Hydro Tasmania, Australia’s largest renewable energy producer and water
manager, Entura is backed by more than 100 years of creating energy and maintaining power
and water assets. This expertise has been exported to clients for the last 25 years, supporting
renewable energy and water projects, building capability of neighbouring countries, and
returning knowledge and revenues to the State of Tasmania.
Strong Australian diplomatic relationships positively affect our markets and ease the security
of business opportunities. Our clients are quite often (but not solely) government agencies or
utilities, or mutli-lateral funding organisations and confidence and trust of Australian
capability and Australian commitment to their nation can play a role in the formation of
strong relationships and the selection of consulting providers. Australia has a good brand in
the regions in which we operate and this provides some competitive advantage against over
firms from other countries.
Water, energy, food security nexus
The countries in which we work provide a market for our expertise and services, because they
are all grappling with major electrification demands, a focus on harnessing their renewable
energy potential, water storage and management issues, and economic development more
broadly whilst having limited internal capability to implement.
Water security is increasingly a challenge, which is intrinsically tied with food security and
what that means for poverty alleviation and economic prosperity. Climate change affects
water resources and adaptation and mitigation responses stimulate a focus on renewable
energy options. Meanwhile electrification, including reliability, is also a key issue for reducing
poverty and improving economic performance. This water, energy, food nexus is an area of
focus for us and one in which we think Australia can contribute; drawing on experiences here
and collaborating with our neighbours to derive solutions. For example, in Tasmania, there
are strong relationships and connectivity between water as a resource for irrigation to
support a growing agricultural sector (as part of the nation’s food bowl) and water as a
resource for electricity production through hydropower. Expertise in Entura, Hydro Tasmania,
Tas Irrigation, and the University of Tasmania (Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative
Research Centre) could come together with Australian Government support to explore how
this Tasmanian case study could be developed up and opportunities for it to support bilateral
discussions or development goals for others.
Australian capability
From a wider industry perspective, there is considerable capability in renewable energy
related fields that is or could be exported internationally from Australia. I share below a few
insights from our national clients in the sector that offer opportunity for the Government to
enhance bilateral diplomacy or development objectives and stimulate and support Australian
business at the same time.
Education and training expertise
The Australian Government could focus investment and effort into bilateral or regional capability
programs using Australian institutions. Reminiscent of the “original” Colombo Plan (as opposed to
the new Colombo plan in place now with Australian placements overseas), Australia could continue
to have a significant influence on the capability of its neighbours and to do so with a focus on the
clean energy sector would bring mutual benefits, diplomatically and economically. This is a key area
of Entura’s capability through Entura clean energy and water institute which has trained over 1200
participants, the vast majority of which have been international.
Engineering services
Many of the countries in the Indo-Pacific region are seeking on- and off-grid renewable energy
options for remote islands or regions, including mini-grid and larger grid situations. Examples include
Indonesia and Pacific island nations, the former already commencing the “1000 islands” project with
Asian Development Bank support. This creates significant opportunity for Australian companies with
the relevant engineering and implementation experience. Promotion of this capability through
bilateral support would assist Australian companies to gain a foothold in those markets. Competition
comes from large companies such ABB, a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in
Zürich, as well as French, Japanese, and Korean companies.
Regulatory frameworks and standards – lifting the bar
Australia is a leading economy in the region with mature regulatory frameworks and financial, legal
and management consulting services industry. There is capability in policy and experience with
regulatory instruments, guidelines, tariffs, and standards which is available for transfer through
export services and/or bilateral commitments. Beyond this, Australia has significant reputation and
experience in high quality health, safety and environment systems that play a part in the
construction and commissioning of renewable energy projects in particular.
We have found that regulatory frameworks often lag vision and commitment on renewable energy or
struggle to keep pace with foreign investment interest (for example in emerging economies with
highly prospective project opportunities like Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia). A strong framework
and associated standards or guidelines to steer market development, project assessment, concession
agreement process and selection, risk management and governance is important to guide the
development of the sector and to ensure high quality projects for governments (as many of them are
Build Own operate transfer model where the national Government will own the project in the
future).
Our markets are highly competitive and, in effect, Australian companies will succeed where the
quality bar is high. Consequently, Australian government-to-government support to improve
regulatory systems and the standards that apply will not only promote Australian capability to come
through and deliver, but also assist Australia to be more competitive in the global market.
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