Iron Ore Research head of product development Philip Kirchlechner addressed delegates at the Iron Ore 2013 conference in Perth yesterday.

Giving a keynote presentation titled ‘Utopia or xenophobia? How do we get through the slowdown of the mining boom?’ Kirchlechner reminded miners the industry was in a global competition for the investment dollar.

Kirchlechner, who has worked for Fortescue Metals Group and Rio Tinto, said the mining and carbon taxes had “completely confused foreign investors”

He said the Australian government's Australia in the Asian Century White Paper “read like a marketing document for existing government policy” and reminded delegates that Asia literacy was now a necessity.

“Australia has always prospered from selling to foreign markets and connecting with foreign investors,” Kirchlechner said.

“But that has become more challenging. Some people don’t like foreigners and don’t like foreign investment.”

He said there were often negative connotations attached to foreign-owned companies, such as UK-based iron ore major Rio Tinto, with the implication that profits would go overseas.

“Foreign investment has been very important to Australia’s development and I think it is important to remind us of that,” he added.

“The British built our infrastructure and export capabilities. Marubeni was one of the first Japanese companies to fund early exploration, a lot of the discoveries in the Pilbara were as a result of the cooperation between Marubeni and Hancock.

“Hamersley Iron was built with American money, Kaiser Steel, and UK money, Rio Tinto. And it was underpinned by Japanese long-term contracts.

“But China is getting all the publicity and yet China’s share of total investment stock is still less than 1%.

“China became Australia’s largest trading partner in 2009 and it’s quite natural for investment to follow trading.

“But Africa is now open for business and we have to compete – we have to get better.”

Kirchlechner said complaints had made by senior Chinese officials about the increasing cost of doing business in Australia.

“The mining tax and the carbon tax … are complex and it’s impossible to quantify what the impact is. It’s causing direct policy responses,” Kirchlechner said.

“We should do some soul searching about how we can connect better with our markets. I think that business hasn’t done enough to understand markets, particularly China.

“Business needs to work harder at understanding culture, history and politics.”