A tale of two cities !

Yesterday, two events half a world apart drew a depressing comparison.

BlueScope Steel celebrated the start of production of a new joint venture with the giant Indian Tata group in Jamshedpur, India.   This $ 167 million venture employs 225 people and will produce steel coated with Colorbond and Zincalume for the thriving East Asia market.

Here in Wollongong, Indian company Gujarat NRE Coking coal is still waiting for the Department of Primary industry to sign off on it's application to start using the $ 90 million Longwall coal extracting system already installed in it's Russel Vale colliery.

Gujarat is a prime example of an innovative foreign company coming to Australia and risking it's capital by acquiring a closed down coal mine - and breathing new life into the venture by hiring Australian miners to deliver an export stream back to it's home country.

That investment is now at risk because it needs to urgently start the Longwall to bring coal extraction to a profitable level.  The delay has gone on for weeks and the company admits that it's finances are under strain. It seems that the sense of urgency involved is not shared by the civil servants who process applications in the Department of Primary industry.

So - we have a situation where an Australian company that has recently issued pink slips to a thousand Australian workers is expanding it's operations in a foreign country - and at the same time a foreign company that has invested heavily in Australia is being financially crippled because the bureaucrats who stamp documents and staple pages - can't get their act together to enable production to proceed.

Such a comparison does not exactly inspire confidence in our ability to overcome the lasting effects of the GFC - and see a recovery of manufacturing industry in Australia !