BHP president of the Americas Rag Udd attended the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum, where he described Australia and Canada as being “superpowers” of natural resources needed to drive decarbonisation.
The Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum was held in Toronto, Canada from July 17–19.
It is held every 18 months and brings together 150 public and private sector leaders from Australia and Canada to discuss global challenges and opportunities facing both countries, and identify where Australia and Canada could improve collaboration in areas of trade and investment, global security, foreign policy, economic growth, innovation and technology, energy, and education.
Key themes from this year’s forum included discussing opportunities for Australia and Canada to accelerate critical minerals development and to deepen trade ties and increase collaboration.
Udd attended the forum and participated in a panel discussion that focused on how Australia and Canada can strengthen engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, which is the fastest growing economic region in the world and is home to the majority of BHP’s customers.
Udd said despite Australia and Canada being relatively small economies on a global scale, both countries are “superpowers” when it comes to natural resources.
“The world is going to need the resources and the expertise we have to advance decarbonisation, to drive forward the energy transition and to be able to feed a growing world population,” Udd said.
“If we can collaborate more when it comes to simplification around regulation, predictable fiscal regimes, adoption of new technologies and how to make more efficient processes and systems, I think Canada and Australia can play a key role in supercharging the economies of the Indo-Pacific by leveraging the joint expertise we have built up in the natural resources sector.”