That won’t offset the impending fall in mining investment and it would be good to see further, and more substantial, upgrades over time. But the available data suggest that things are at least heading in the right direction. This is not some call for business leaders to play a role in driving growth out of a publicspirited desire to help the economy.
That would be a fruitless call because doing that isn’t their job. Their responsibility is to run their companies in the interests of the companies’ owners. My argument simply is that, at some point, it is going to be in the interests of the owners for investment to take place in new technologies, better processes, new lines of business and, in time, more capacity.