(Theage, Nov 29, 2006) China will continue to be a key focus for BHP Billiton in the next few years, its chief executive Chip Goodyear said.

The country was likely to remain a powerhouse for economic growth and demand for commodities, he said.

"We'd probably move more raw material product to China than anybody else," Mr Goodyear said ahead of today's BHP Billiton annual meeting in Brisbane.

"Because it's not just iron: it's iron ore, it's coal, it's manganese, it's copper, it's nickel, it's alumina, it's LNG (liquefied natural gas).

"Those products are critical to that marketplace and it gives us an excellent footprint and finger in that pie to understand what is happening."

In China, building an aluminium or copper smelter cost only 60 per cent of what it cost in a developed economy.

"Most of that compression becomes labour cost and turns China into the processing enterprise of the world," Mr Goodyear said.

"It's very difficult to put that genie back in the bottle.

"Once people have the visibility of a better way of life, they can work very hard to get it and that opportunity is an opportunity for us."

But it could take time for the skills shortage to ease, he said.

"We are seeing more students today who want to come in to our industry and it'll take five to 10 years to see that show up in terms of workforce numbers to a level to give them responsibility to take care of a billion or two billion dollar projects."

"Where we will go in the meantime - we will go places like China and India and Brazil and the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) in Africa."

In the meantime, Mr Goodyear did not believe the world would be running out of oil.

"There's oil out there, it's just a question of what price to pay to get it out."

Mr Goodyear will also address the possible involvement of BHP Billiton in a debt recovery deal with the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), CEO Chip Goodyear says.

Food-for-Oil inquiry chief Terence Cole, QC, has called for Norman Davidson Kelly to be investigated by a special task force for alleged conspiracy offences under the Crimes Act and deceiving the United Nations.

Mr Davidson Kelly headed up BHP-related company, Tigris Petroleum, which played a major role in an alleged debt recovery plan involving Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government and the AWB.

Under the deal, AWB recovered an $11 million debt from the Iraqi Grain Board which was owed to BHP from a wheat shipment the mining giant funded a decade ago.

Mr Goodyear said the matter would come under close scrutiny by the current BHP management even if the deal happened in the past.

"You have to take ownership of the process that deals with the issues properly no matter where they are.

"In this case we will investigate very thoroughly."

Source:Theage