-
Premier and Deputy Premier lead mission to Japan
to boost WA tourism and trade
- Direct flights between Tokyo and Perth resuming
next week
- Western Australia and Japan trade relationship
worth almost $40 billion in 2022, supporting thousands of jobs
The Premier and Deputy
Premier along with representatives from Western
Australian Treasury Corporation (WATC) will board the first direct Perth
to Tokyo flight in more than three years next weekend, as part of a mission to
boost tourism, trade and local Western Australian jobs.
Japan is WA's second
largest trading partner, with $39.7 billion of goods traded in 2022, based on
long-standing partnerships in iron ore, LNG, and other job-creating
commodities.
The trade mission - which
marks the Premier and Deputy Premier's first official visits to Japan - will
provide an important opportunity to bolster the investment and trade
relationship between WA and Japan.
The All Nippon Airways
(ANA) flight, first taking off on Sunday 29 October, will run three times a
week and marks the return of a popular route first launched in 2019.
It will help to boost
visitor numbers to WA, with Japan a key market in the Cook Government's Walking
on a Dream tourism campaign.
The mission will involve
a range of high-level meetings and events with industry stakeholders, including
an energy and resources seminar to be attended by Japanese energy and resources
companies, investors, Government representatives and trading houses.
Premier Cook and Deputy
Premier Saffioti are set to meet with board representatives from Mitsui, Mitsubishi
and Marubeni, and the Premier will meet with the Parliamentary Vice Minister of
Foreign Affairs and the CEO of JOGMEC.
The Deputy Premier and
the WATC will also meet with
Japan's financial institutions and banking industry, to promote WA as an investment
destination of choice.
Comments attributed to Premier Roger Cook:
"Japan is one of our
closest and most important trading partners - and our relationship with Japan
underpins tens of thousands of jobs in our resources sector.
"This mission will strengthen
those ties, and to grasp the enormous opportunities of the future - in tourism
and in green energy industries.
"My Government is
committed to diversifying our economy to create strong local jobs for the
future."
Comments attributed to Deputy Premier Rita
Saffioti:
"Having the opportunity to promote the investment opportunities through
the Western Australian Treasury Corporation firsthand in Japan, is an
invaluable tool which we are set to take full advantage of.
"Being able to come across
on the resumption of the direct flight route run by ANA is a great way to
travel between Tokyo and Perth - a trip I am sure many more travellers will
choose to take."
