Honorable Willem Westra van Holthe, Deputy Chief Minister of Northern Territory,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to attend Northern Territory Investment Seminar today. On behalf of Chinese Consulate General in Perth, I would like to extend my congratulations to the event and wish the seminar a complete success.
Consul General Dr.Huang Qinguo delivers a speech at Australian Northern Territory Investment Seminar
In recent years, China-Australia relations have maintained a good momentum of growth. The all-round political, economic, cultural and tourism exchange and cooperation has been deepened. Last year, Chinese President Xi jinping paid a very successful visit to Australia. The two leaders uplifted the bilateral relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership. The bilateral cooperation has been brought to a historic height. Trade and economic cooperation has been the highlight of bilateral cooperation. China has been Australia's largest trading partner, export market and source of import for six consecutive years. The two-way investment between China and Australia is growing rapidly. The two nations have been mutually important investment partners. According to Australia Foreign Investment Review Board report, for the first time, China has been the largest source of proposed foreign investment in Australia in the financial year 2013-14. Last week ,China-Australia Free Trade Agreement has been signed officially , it will provide a better platform and an improved institutional guarantee for the two countries to complement each other with advantages . With taking effect of bilateral Free Trade Agreement as well as the "One Belt, One Road " initiative, this would inject more vitality to boosting China-Australia cooperation.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Northern Territory has one sixth of Australia' s land . There are significant mineral and energy resources in the Northern Territory, many of which rank top in Australia even in the world. As Australia's gateway to Asia, the Northern Territory has a unique advantage of developing mutually beneficial cooperation with China. At present, Australia is making strategy of developing the north of Australia. 10 days ago, Australian Federal government agreed to allocate 5 billion dollars to support infrastructure development in Northern Territory, which fully reflects the Australian Government's commitment to accelerating the development of the Northern Territory. In recent years, Chinese government has also spared no effort to promote the Western development strategy. In March of this year, President Xi Jinping met visiting Australian Governor-General Peter John Cosgrove. Both sides agreed to actively promote the connection and cooperation between the western development strategy of China and development strategy for Northern Australia. It is foreseeable that bilateral mutual beneficiary cooperation will be faced with significant development opportunities in the area of energy resources, agriculture and farming, infrastructure construction, protection of ecological environment and so on.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Northern Territory government attaches great importance to developing exchange and cooperation with China. Meanwhile, more and more Chinese enterprises are being attracted by the investment opportunities in Northern Territory. The economic and trade cooperation between Northern Territory and China is of great potential and has broad prospects. Therefore, today's investment seminar is a very good opportunity. I sincerely hope and firmly believe that the investment promotion today will help more Chinese enterprises understand Northern Territory better and the win-win cooperation between China and Northern Territory will be boosted.
Last but not the least, I wish today's investment promotion a great success.
Thank you!