00:00As countries race to secure critical minerals needed for technology, energy transition and defence,
00:06resource-rich nations are finding themselves at the centre of intense geopolitical competition.
00:11Speaking at the 39th Asia-Pacific Roundtable, Hayley Chenner from the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney
00:18says Southeast Asia has a key role to play in global supply chains
00:22and shares how countries in the region can navigate this growing competition.
00:30I think that's the forefront of a lot of the geostrategic debate about critical mineral supply chains,
00:34mainly because Southeast Asia has so much to offer in terms of securing critical mineral supply chains.
00:39So, for example, I think there is about 46% of the world's nickel in Southeast Asia,
00:46a lot of rare earths and a lot of tin.
00:49And Malaysia is obviously the only country outside of China
00:53to achieve commercial scale separation of heavy rare earths through the Australian company Linus.
00:59in terms of what Malaysia can do to manage all of these great power politics.
01:03I think there are really three things that Malaysia should focus on.
01:07The first one is good quality geological data.
01:11Lots of international companies will come to Malaysia and to Southeast Asia
01:15if there's more reliable data that they can show their investors that there will be a commercial return.
01:21The next thing, which is hard as well, is bipartisanship politically in Malaysia and elsewhere on mineral policy.
01:30And if you think about it, minerals go into lots of different defence applications.
01:34So, if both sides of politics can agree that they have to have a combined front,
01:39that political stability will also give investors confidence.
01:43And the third and final point about what Malaysia can do is actually about generating public support for Malaysia to
01:50do this.
01:50So, any miner will tell you that one of the most difficult things about mining minerals
01:55is getting local support from the community that you're mining in.
01:59Because obviously, a lot of these mines are near communities and there might be environmental damage.
02:04So, if the governments, both state and local, can explain the reasons why
02:10and do the mining in an appropriate way that's sustainable,
02:14they will build that community support for their projects
02:17and then it will face less hurdles down the road.
02:20Chenna added that disruptions in key shipping routes, including the Strait of Hormuz,
02:24have highlighted the need for countries to build more proactive and resilient supply chains before crisis occur.
02:30Hormuz and Iran are just another reminder of how the old world has changed.
02:34We are not going back to the previous world order.
02:38And countries need to have some sort of extra buffer so that they can have more flexibility.
02:45And if you're not going to invest in separate supply chains, you are really making yourself more vulnerable.
02:53Companies have had a difficult way to navigate because they're also trying to support their shareholders.
03:01And if they can get a better return through purchasing critical minerals from China,
03:05they're going to keep purchasing those minerals from China.
03:08So, governments really are responsible for creating this additional mineral supply chain, not companies.
03:16And so, that means that governments have to invest in their local industry, invest in R&D,
03:22and invest in the offtake of these minerals because this is a situation that's not going away
03:27and we really have to do things differently than we've done them before.
03:31And so, we're going to do things differently than we've done them before.
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