Australia launches $1.5B Pacific fund to counter China

AUSTRALIA will offer Pacific countries up to AU$3 billion ($2.18 billion) in grants and cheap loans to build infrastructure, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday, as Canberra seeks to counter China’s rising influence in the region. Australia and China have been vying for influence in sparsely populated Pacific island countries that control vast swathes of resource-rich oceans. China has spent $1.3 billion on concessional loans and gifts since 2011 to become the Pacific’s second-largest donor after Australia, stoking concern in the West that several tiny nations could end up overburdened and in debt to Beijing.

“The government I have the privilege to lead, is returning the Pacific to where it should be; front and center,” Morrison said in a speech announcing the new Pacific initiative. “This is our patch. This is our part of the world.”

Morrison said Australia will create a AU$2 billion infrastructure fund that will invest in telecommunications, energy, transport, water projects. Australia will also give an additional AU$1 billion to its financing arm, which offers loans to private companies unable to secure funds from traditional lenders, to invest in the Pacific. Morrison said Australia would also expand its diplomatic presence in the Pacific, posting staff to Palau, the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, Niue and the Cook Islands. Australia said it will also strengthen defense and security ties with Pacific islands through new joint exercises and training.