Reflecting its long-term commitment to Africa’s future, Australian mining companies have invested about $60-billion into Africa.

Speaking at this year’s Africa Down Under conference, on September 4, Australia Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Assistant Minister Tim Watts explained that such investments provided jobs, training, expertise, opportunities and new infrastructure, delivering significant benefits to local communities.

Prior to the African Union’s (AU’s) entry into the Group of 20 (G20) last year, Watts explained, the G20 represented about two-thirds of the world's population, 75% of global trade and 85% of global GDP.

He noted that the AU’s entry had added 1.4-billion people and almost $3-trillion in GDP to those figures.

“This reflects the fact that there is no global economy without Africa. Africa will have the world's largest potential workforce by 2030. Africa's middle class is projected to grow to over one-billion people by 2060,” he said.

“The world's biggest goals - sustainable development, addressing climate change, achieving net zero, powering the world - simply cannot be achieved without the nations of Africa. Working together to achieve our common interests is not simply a choice, it's a necessity,” added Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.

She stated that the AU’s membership of the G20 reflected Africa’s contribution to the global economy and its crucial role in shaping the global economic and financial future.

With this in mind, Wong noted that Australian businesses in mining, renewable energy and education services were helping to provide skills, add value and generate sustainable benefits for local communities in Africa. 

“Africa is already central to the global economy and international security, and this role in the world will only get bigger, and Australia's relationship with the countries of Africa will only get stronger,” she said.

Watts further argued that Africa's continued rise over the course of this century as a global engine for growth was expected to have a significant influence on the trajectory of the world.

As a major partner in the global transition to net zero, and as a key partner in international peace and security, he said Australia could play a constructive role in Africa's rise, owing to shared commonalities between Australia and Africa, such as their natural endowments of critical minerals.

“I'm confident that Australian companies can continue to work together with their partners in Africa to deliver economic growth and prosperity in socially accountable and environmentally responsible ways. That's the only way we'll meet the scale-up required to meet that net-zero challenge,” he said.