Western Australian Premier making first UAE visit

DUBAI, 27th February, 2018 (WAM) -- Mark McGowan, Premier of Western Australia, arrives for a two-day visit to the UAE tonight on a mission to further strengthen the AED8.4 billion bilateral trade relationship between the UAE and Australia. It will be the first visit to the UAE by McGowan, whose state, the largest in the Commonwealth of Australia, is the country’s largest exporter of minerals and grain. Three of the four Australian universities with a presence in the UAE also come from his state. The visit, according to Pankaj Savara, Commissioner of the Western Australia Government’s Dubai-based Middle East office, will include engagement both with government officials and with major business establishments from the Middle East region. This will, he said, "encourage our office’s proactive facilitation of Western Australian education, trade and investment through this region." Coinciding with the UAE’s Innovation Month, this visit will seek to support the growing importance and culture of innovation in UAE and to establish closer links with scientific and technological innovation in Western Australia. The Western Australian capital, Perth, the closest Australian capital city to the UAE, is serviced by both Emirates and Etihad for tourism, business and cargo, while the state also accounts for 47.8 percent of Australia’s exports to the UAE and 74.8 percent of Australia’s imports from the UAE. The UAE is also the second largest GCC market for Western Australian agricultural produce, accounting for 27.3 percent of the GCC market. Carrots, alone, make up AUS$19 million of the total AUS$25 million in vegetables exported to the Emirates. Western Australian Universities already established in the UAE include Curtin University and Murdoch University, which have campuses in Dubai offering a variety of programmes while Edith Cowan University, in partnership with Emirates Group Security, offers diploma programmes.