Australian minister says Chinese companies treated no differently on investment

The Australian Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said here on Sunday that no Chinese companies had been told to withdraw investment applications to buy into Australian resources companies.

Ferguson said that while a rigorous national interest test would be applied to such applications, state-owned Chinese firms were not being treated differently.

The Australian newspaper reported last week that the government was discreetly pressuring the Chinese at high levels to back off and resubmit applications at a later date.

There's been no suggestion that China or any other investor should back off, Ferguson told Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) TV.

As China makes investments, some will be rejected, some will be changed to meet our national interest test. That's no different to previous investments by companies out of key markets such as Japan and Korea.

The minister said Australia was open to investment and China was entitled to do so in the same way as companies from North America, Europe and elsewhere.

But we will rigorously apply the national interest test to make sure that our resources are developed and sold internationally according to normal market principles.

Source: Xinhua