Premier Roger Cook praises WA relationship with China: ‘one of the great successes of the last century’

Premier Roger Cook has used his first strategic dialogue with senior Chinese business leaders to push the economic powerhouse towards future downstream processing in WA. Speaking to the sixth annual Western Australia-China Strategic Dialogue, Mr Cook praised the relationship between the State and the world’s second-biggest economy as “one of the great success stories of the last century”. Reflecting on the partnership, Mr Cook said there was capacity for “so much more”. “For WA that means a more diversified economy that responds to global trends, an approvals system that responds to the realities of doing business and a government that always listens,” he said. “And from China: growing the value of your investments here in Western Australia, expanding China’s share of overall foreign investment in Australia and looking toward the growing role of downstream processing here in Western Australia particularly as we realise our emissions around the generation of renewable energy. “We’ve realized the extraordinary potential of the Western Australia China relationship, and we see just so much more that can be done.” Last year, two-way trade between WA and China reached $163 billion — more than half of Australia’s total trade with the country. “Importantly, the trade relationship has generated immense benefits on both sides,” he said. “Here in WA, modelling has pointed to WA-China trade generating over 220,000 jobs — so there’s almost not a person in Western Australia who is not directly engaged as part of that relationship, or doesn’t know someone or related to someone as part of that relationship. “And in China, our commodities have helped to propel China’s economic transformation. “Our achievements to date should be recognised and commended.” China’s appetite for iron ore in recent years has bolstered the State budget, with recent figures released showing an uptick in the price in May and June contributed to a $1.3 billion boost to the surplus. This year’s dialogue is the first held since Mr Cook became Premier last year, after his predecessor, Mark McGowan travelled to China in his last month in the top job for the event. Mr Cook used the speech to highlight the strong cultural connections between WA and China, referring to Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Perth in Juyne, and direct flights to Guangzhou and Shanghai.