It's an honour to be here.
We're joined by Australian friends and friends from the Japanese end of this really quite remarkable investment partnership that we have between 2 countries; and between the businesses and asset managers and funds from 2 wonderful countries.
And so I'm really pleased to be with you today, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Basic Treaty [of Friendship and Cooperation].
But I think even more importantly, looking much further forward to the endless immense opportunities that we have to make the most of together on the Australian side and Japanese side.
Today's roundtable comes at a period of pivotal time for both of our countries.
Supply chain shocks rippling through the world economy because of conflict and geopolitical tension.
We know that we have to respond to these developments, and one of the best ways that we can do that is to strengthen the ties between us. We know that more investment between us will make our countries stronger, deliver more growth, more productivity.
We also know that Australia has a unique combination of advantages for investors: abundant renewable and traditional energy opportunities, new opportunities in green tech and industries, world‑class critical minerals and metal ores, in a trusted jurisdiction and digital hub in the Indo Pacific.
We offer stability and security in the fastest growing region of the world.
And finally, our superannuation system is one of the biggest pools of patient capital on the planet. Our assets are already $4.8 trillion in August.
We are the fourth biggest pension system globally. And some projections have us being in the top 2 by the end of this decade, which is really quite an extraordinary thing for a country of our size to have that much heft and that much capital to invest at home and abroad.
And, obviously, we see that big and growing pool of retirement savings as a natural complement to Japan's ambitions to develop its asset management sector and attract long‑term investment capital.
We've been watching closely, as everyone has the developments in policy, on the Japanese end when it comes to some of those opportunities.
Our super funds are typically focused on attractive long‑term investment opportunities, sustainable returns over decades rather than over months or years.
And that means that our super system represents a significant source of patient long‑term capital with a tenor and scale to support investments across a range of asset classes.
I'm looking forward to talking with you all about that today.
If you just think about the last few years, the economic reform efforts here in Japan have driven growing strength in the corporate sector.
We've had successive waves of corporate governance reform across stewardship, board oversight, capital allocation, and we've got that financial services strategy to promote growth investment that is incentivising households and businesses to invest a greater share of their savings as well.
So really terrific opportunity for us to meet today.
Our growing pool of capital, experienced and motivated class of asset managers looking for opportunities in increasingly complex geopolitical environment.
Japan, with its deep pools of capital, looking for new opportunities and with opportunities for investment and the right kind of partners as well.
So it's the perfect time to meet, the perfect combination of people to discuss these opportunities together.
