MAYASIA BUSINESS OUTLOOK9Japan, India, and France announced on Thursday a common platform for bilateral creditors to coordinate debt restructuring in Sri Lanka, a move they hope will serve as a model for resolving the debt woes of middle-income economies. However, it is unclear whether Sri Lanka's largest bilateral creditor, China, will join the initiative launched by Japan, this year's G7 chair, to kick off a series of meetings among Sri Lanka's creditors."To be able to launch this negotiation process with such a diverse group of creditors is a historic outcome", Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said at a press conference. "This committee is open to all creditors", he said, expressing hope that China will participate.Emmanuel Moulin, the French Director General of the Treasury, told the briefing that the group was ready to hold the first round of talks 'as soon as possible'. Earlier this week, Sri Lanka's central bank governor told that having a single platform for talks would be a welcome step that would make it easier to discuss and share information.Suzuki stated, "I hope that the creation of this platform will become a model case" for debt restructuring in middle-income countries.Masato Kanda, Japan's top currency diplomat, told reporters that the group has sent invitations to all of Sri Lanka's bilateral creditors, including China, and hopes to hold the first round of talks as soon as possible.The International Monetary Fund last month approved a $2.9 billion programme to help the island nation of 22 million people deal with its massive debt burden. However, the middle-income economy was unable to apply for relief under the G20's common framework for debt treatment, which only applies to low-income countries. This has put the onus on major economies to devise an alternative scheme, resulting in the development of the new platform. Mitsubishi Corp is looking to invest in nickel and lithium projects to meet rising demand for EV batteries, while increasing copper output, according to the head of its metal operations on Thursday. The move coincides with a global push by automakers to electrify their fleets, resulting in a rush for stable supplies of lithium, nickel, copper, and other critical minerals. By the end of the decade, demand is expected to outstrip supply."As global resource companies and others seek lithium and nickel, we are thinking about investing in the two metals", Satoshi Koyama, CEO of Mitsubishi's mineral resources group, said at an analysts meeting. According to him, Canada and Australia could be nickel investment targets because they meet both the criteria of safety in terms of geopolitical risk and access to renewable energy in terms of decarbonisation.Mitsubishi purchased a 15 percent stake in a joint venture with Giga Metals Corp last year to pursue the development of the Turnagain nickel deposit in Canada. "We are verifying what kind of nickel projects will make it to the profitability line, given technical challenges and cost issues", Koyama explained. Mitsubishi is also investigating several lithium projects.To develop a new mine, it must include a downstream operation to process the metal into raw battery material, but whether this can be accomplished in Australia and North America will be the most difficult challenge, according to Koyama. Mitsubishi and its Australian joint venture partner BHP Group have listed their Daunia and Blackwater metallurgical coal mines in Queensland's Bowen Basin for sale. If the deal goes through, Koyama said, "We may allocate the cash to growth segments such as copper and battery metals". NEWSROOMJAPAN, INDIA & FRANCE OPEN A COMMON PLATFORM TO COORDINATE SRI LANKA'S DEBTMITSUBISHI SEEKING TO INVEST IN NICKEL & LITHIUM PROJECTS OWING TO EV DEMAND
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