Premier returns after UK trade visit success

The Hon Colin Barnett, Premier of Western Australia, has returned to Perth after a very successful visit to the UK and Brussels. The Premier’s main focus during the mission was to discuss planning for a number of the events to be held around the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which is in Perth, Western Australia, in late October 2011. He also promoted investment in Western Australia and had meetings to discuss the State, Australia and New Zealand as the location for the very important Square Kilometre Array project.

As part of the visit he met with UK Ministers with energy and trade responsibilities and with senior government and business leaders. In London, the Premier and his wife met with Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, and discussed arrangements for her visit to Western Australia at the time of CHOGM.

The Premier also gave the address at the annual Western Australia Foundation Day Service at the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, London. Later in the visit he met and addressed a number of business leaders at a reception held at the Australian High Commission also and attended a tasting of Western Australian premium wines which featured more than 50 wines.

The Premier’s programme included delivering the annual Menzies Lecture at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College London. The Premier also paid a visit to the British Museum to have discussions and to announce a Memorandum of Understanding with the WA Museum as well as a special exhibition which will offer highlights of the Commonwealth, filled with unexpected stories, and which will initially be shown in Perth during CHOGM.

Mr Barnett was the guest of honour at a number of business functions including the Commonwealth Business Council event promoting the Commonwealth Business Forum to be held in Perth where he spoke of the Commonwealth trade relationship and the need to encourage the strong ties that exist within the Commonwealth member countries.

He also spoke at an Australian Business breakfast where he mentioned WA’s dominant position in commodities, producing 21 per cent of the world’s iron ore and 15 per cent of the world’s alumina as well as 9 per cent of the worlds’ liquefied natural gas. The Premier spoke about Western Australia’s current phase of development being linked to China, stating that  $107 billion in major resource projects are currently under construction or committed in Western Australia and a further $194 billion is in the pipeline as planned or possible, indicating the extent of the new phase of development for the State. He emphasised the close links with Asia, demonstrated by the fact that 67 per cent and 42 per cent of Australia’s exports to China and Japan respectively are sourced from WA.

The Premier said that trade and investment decisions in the UK, Europe and the Middle East remained integral to Western Australia’s economic development. As part of his message the Premier said that now is the right time to invest in WA, not only in the resources sector, but also in agriculture, services and advanced manufacturing industries.

The United Kingdom is Australia’s second largest source of foreign direct investment and WA is a significant global resources economy destination for UK investment and industry, with a strong British component in major resource companies, including BP, Shell, Rio and BHP Billiton. In 2010, Western Australian trade with the United Kingdom accounted for 45 per cent of Australian/UK trade, totalling AUD$6.4billion.

The Premier’s visit to the European Commission, based in Brussels, allowed him to meet with senior European Commission officials and discuss Western Australia’s potential as an energy supplier, and the importance of reducing trade barriers.

The visit to Belgium included a visit to the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing where Mr Barnett laid a wreath on behalf of the Government and People of Western Australia at a memorial service acknowledging the sacrifice of those British and Commonwealth WWI soldiers killed in action, whose graves are not known, including more than 6,000 Australians.