SYDNEY, Oct. 15 -- Rather than scaling back, the Australian government, has dramatically expanded specialized visa schemes guaranteeing residency to any foreigner that invests 15 million Australian dollars (13.4 million U.S. dollars) into the capital-hungry nation's economy over one year.

Andrew Robb, Australian minister for trade and investment, told Xinhua that the federal government is tabling a Premium Investor Visa (PIV) which streamlines a no-strings pathway to permanent residency for individuals that commit to the Australian economy for the long term, specifically those who commit to a 15-million- Australian-dollar threshold.

HISTORY OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT

While the transitioning Australian economy remains starved of the foreign investment that has historically driven the nation's economic heartbeat, the trade and investment minister - taking time out from driving a possible 2014 conclusion to an elusive China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) - said the new scheme went beyond drawing dollars into the country.

Far from being a lure to scalp the world's wealthy and wise, the minister told Xinhua that since the arrival of the First Fleet, "Australia, with its relatively small population, developing economy and thin capital market, has always been reliant on foreign investment."

Minister Robb said as an "open economy this remains the case today - notwithstanding our emergence as the world's 12 largest economy - an economy which has delivered 23 years of uninterrupted growth."

According to the minister, foreign investment has been a key element of Australia's success story - a critical lever that has drawn waves of growth from the historic booms that have, chronologically followed from the earliest gold rushes, through the development of merino wool, agribusiness and mining.

"We are of course a resource-rich country," he said. "But in order to exploit this, foreign capital has been required to finance the shortfalls in our own savings and investment to support project construction and ultimately production."

"We are looking to encourage more individuals from countries like China - where innovation and an incredible diversity of economic imagination - have wrested millions from privation - to make Australia home."

"We hope these minds can look to invest in our country with the same energy and sense of community that has helped support growth, create jobs and construct the important people-to-people linkages which result in other opportunities," Robb said.

While critics of the current Significant Investor Visa (SIV) scheme - now more than two years old - say the policy has filled the national coffers by paving the way for foreign individuals to fast-track residency (by investing 5 million Australian dollars (4. 6 million U.S. dollars) in Australia), KPMG Australia's Doug Ferguson, partner in charge Asia Business Group and China Business Practice, says the scheme will ensure Australia builds essential ties to its most significant trading partner - China.