Shanghai and Perth economic boom

Shanghai and Perth have developed immensely over the decades and former premier Colin Barnett has expressed that we can thank the strong relationship between China and WA for our state’s success.

Economic growth has boomed for China in the last decade immensely and the country in a whole has changed millions of residents’ lives. In 1999 half a billion Chinese residents lived below the extreme poverty line but now that number has dropped immensely to 10 million. This meant that population in urban areas rose from 47% to 57.4% in 8 years with roughly 179 million more people living in cities.

China’s relationship with WA only increased with the immense rise in population within urban areas and the need for raw materials. In this time iron ore production climbed by 600mtpa pushing sales to rise annually to $78 billion which was possible due to a large investment boom. In June 2018 the mining industry’s capital stock rose more than eightfold over 20 years sitting then at $437 billion.

The face of Perth has also changed immensely over the years with projects such as Elizabeth Quay, the new museum and Optus Stadium which has recently been voted the best-looking sports stadium in the world for 2019. Mr Barnett came to the realisation after visiting other Australian states in 2009, how far Perth had fallen behind in regard to production and pushed down on the accelerator to get production on projects started – “I noted how Brisbane had changed… getting on the plane on the way back, I came to the realisation of how far Perth had fallen behind.”

With WA being the proposed leader for the mining industry in 2020 we can look forward to this relationship continuously blossoming in the near future and only helping the economy stabilise.

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This is a summary of the article ‘Boom Brings mutual benefit, Economic booms brings mutual benefit’ by Matt McKenzie | Business News | Great for the State | Page 3 & 12|