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Speaker 1: I am indeed very excited to have another Australian with

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Speaker 1: me on set. Here on the third and final day

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Speaker 1: of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, we have Andrew Forest,

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Speaker 1: the chairman of Fortescue Medals Group and chairman of Mindaru Foundation.

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Speaker 1: Great to have you with us. Andrew, You've just announced

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Speaker 1: a rather large commitment to supporting Ukraine on their Green

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Speaker 1: Growth initiative. This is a seed of five million U

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Speaker 1: S dollars. Tell us about the fund, your conversations with

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Speaker 1: President Zelinski. Assume this has been long in the planning.

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Speaker 1: It's been long in the planning. UM. I first flow

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Speaker 1: the idea with the O E c D back in

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Speaker 1: the beginning of March UM and that I went to

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Speaker 1: see President Biden, had a long briefing with the Chief

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Speaker 1: staff Ron Crane. I've spoken about this to the President

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Speaker 1: of the EU, also the Vice President. I've got Britain

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Speaker 1: really everywhere, just to make sure that this was what

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Speaker 1: the world really needed UM. And then of course they

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Speaker 1: started to speak to the very large investors UM and

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Speaker 1: they said, yeah, look Forest, you back, this will back

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Speaker 1: this UM. So that's how it started to unfold. And

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Speaker 1: what do you expect the fund to grow to. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of people here you could be having

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Speaker 1: conversations with about investing to what sort of conversations are

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Speaker 1: you having. Look, I've had a lot of people just

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Speaker 1: walk up and say, hey, Andrew, don't forget us, We're

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Speaker 1: in I've asked, and black Rock a very kindly stepped

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Speaker 1: up to do all the due diligence, the governance. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we really have to have a Ukraine economic system which

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Speaker 1: is prepared for a large, highly professional, very well managed

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Speaker 1: fund to be able to set accept investments from sovereign funds,

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Speaker 1: fund managers all over the world, professional investors. That works.

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Speaker 1: All being done now, I'm grateful to black Rock for

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Speaker 1: doing it. Um and whether or not black Rock take

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Speaker 1: the take the fund on I don't know, but I

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Speaker 1: can say this, the investment community is ready to move.

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Speaker 1: What is the time frame here? Because we know that

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Speaker 1: there is the martial plan in trying to rebuild Ukraine

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Speaker 1: as well as this part of the strategy. Is this

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Speaker 1: the actual strategy? What are your conversations with President's Lensky. Look,

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Speaker 1: it's a very critical part of the part of the strategy.

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Speaker 1: My conversation of the Ukrainian president has been one initially

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Speaker 1: expression of gratitude. The Mindary Foundation really stepped up. It

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Speaker 1: said it would purchase the ship itself, because you can't

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Speaker 1: get a ship ensued. Back in the day when when

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Speaker 1: everything was blocked, the President of Russia said he wouldn't

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Speaker 1: attack a food ship, so I wanted to test that.

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Speaker 1: The World Food Program then fortunately did a agreement in

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Speaker 1: Egypt and we're able to help fund their first ship

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Speaker 1: in We've also funded independently very large temporary grain storage

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Speaker 1: because we haven't been able to get all the massive

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Speaker 1: food production of Ukraine out, so to prevent it rotting,

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Speaker 1: we've we've funded temporary storage. But what the President's point

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Speaker 1: to me was we must have business investment. Only business

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Speaker 1: investment comes with the very latest technology, the very latedest

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Speaker 1: know how. Only business investment could have that eight to

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Speaker 1: ten times economic multiplier. So then I revealed to the

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Speaker 1: President's I've been thinking about this for a long time.

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Speaker 1: I really think that our family, Nick and I will

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Speaker 1: be happy investing five million US dollars to exceed a

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Speaker 1: much larger fund which you will start. Initially, I think, okay,

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Speaker 1: so starting at BION, what what do you hope to

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Speaker 1: get to and and guess what in the time frame,

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Speaker 1: because it's going to take a lot to rebuild Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: Look it will, and the Ukrainian people in the Ukrainian

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Speaker 1: government really need that strong message of hope that the

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Speaker 1: business community will not stand by. In fact, it will

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Speaker 1: get ready now to invest at a hair trigger when

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Speaker 1: the Russian forces are expelled from the homelands of Ukraine.

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Speaker 1: Business investment will be ready to go. And I think

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Speaker 1: governments all over the world want to contribute in this

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Speaker 1: martial plan look alike will be thinking one thing, this

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Speaker 1: will be so much better that the Marshall Plan didn't

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Speaker 1: start for years. This will start on the spot. It

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Speaker 1: will be a collaboration with business who can build back

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Speaker 1: quickly that communefrastructure, power stations won't be fired by coal,

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Speaker 1: There'll be green, communications won't be telephone lines will be digital.

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Speaker 1: This is the opportunity to build potentially the fastest growth

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Speaker 1: economy in Europe for years. So tell us about some

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Speaker 1: of the other conversations you've been having on the sidelines

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Speaker 1: of the New Economy Forum, because it is about digitalization

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Speaker 1: empowering the economy forward. I know you've mentioned that CEO

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Speaker 1: should not be relying so much on fossil fuels as well.

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Speaker 1: They should be having those conversations in the boardroom. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: look exactly. I mean the world is underinvested in energy,

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Speaker 1: and it's over invested in fossil fuel energy. We have

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Speaker 1: a huge energy resource all around us, a thousand x

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Speaker 1: bigger than anything which fossil fuel could ever provide. I

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Speaker 1: know that Ukraine could really participate in that. They could

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Speaker 1: become a massive produce of green electrons and power their

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Speaker 1: own economy green. They can export those green electrons or

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Speaker 1: even as green molecules is hydrogen through to Europe, creating

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Speaker 1: new export industry. Use all those pipelines which used to

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Speaker 1: export fossil all can now export green, harmless but invaluable

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Speaker 1: energy made from the air around us. So you're heading

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Speaker 1: back to Australia today, but you have been all around

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Speaker 1: the world. You've been in Indonesia, You've been in Egypt.

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Speaker 1: What what's your kind of take on where we are

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Speaker 1: on the world economy now, particularly as we're looking to

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Speaker 1: when we see this peak inflation. Okay, So investors around

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Speaker 1: the world right now cautious. Um, when you are investing

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Speaker 1: into an infactory environment, you know that you're probably going

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Speaker 1: to be behind the appoll from the starts. So governments

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Speaker 1: around the world are really clamping down on inflation. Um.

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Speaker 1: They don't want to do it where they cause recessions,

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Speaker 1: so they're treading that fine line. UM. And I think look,

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Speaker 1: everyone's kind of pessimistic about three. This has all been

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Speaker 1: driven by a idiotic troglode attitude, which I'm hoping gets

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Speaker 1: left behind in the animals of the garbage bins of

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Speaker 1: human history that you can have invade another country for

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Speaker 1: economic or political, even personal purposes, that era if putness

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Speaker 1: remembered for anything. Let's make sure that era where you

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Speaker 1: invade a country for gain is consigned to the dust

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Speaker 1: bins of history. We can as humanity into a peaceful era,

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Speaker 1: and Ukraine can symbolize that where aggression was not rewarded,

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Speaker 1: where bravery encourage and patrickist into a country was rewarded,

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Speaker 1: and that Ukraine having solid business investment, the latest technology

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Speaker 1: know how in the like will lead that multiplier impact,

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Speaker 1: will give governments the confidence that they two can invest

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Speaker 1: alongside business and rebuild that economy. Andrew Forest, we thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for your time here on Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: Andrew chairman of Forest Medals Group, and Chairman of the

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Speaker 1: Mindoro Foundation, Fortescue Medals Group and Chairman of Minda Foundation

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Speaker 1: with me here on the final day of the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: New Economy Forum in Singapore, off