The Minister for Resources, Energy and Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, this morning officially launched the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea - AustCham.
Minister Ferguson said: "I am aware that the chamber has a legacy spanning two decades. From its humble beginnings as the Australian Business Group in Korea in the 1990s, it became the Australia and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Korea in 2001, before finally establishing itself late last year as an independent Australian Chamber.
"The new AustCham will continue to perform the vital role of strengthening business links between Australia and Korea."
Australia's goods exports to Korea are worth around $16 billion a year and Korea is Australia's seventh largest inbound tourism market.
About one-third of Korea's thermal coal and half its coking coal come from Australia.
Minister Ferguson said: "Korea and Australia have a common interest in accelerating carbon capture and storage technology, and I am pleased that Korea has joined Australia as a foundation member of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.
"There are also untapped opportunities for Australia to help Korea secure its energy needs. We are already supplying uranium to Korea under long term contracts, but we are a very small spot supplier of LNG. In the important transition to a low carbon economy, LNG will become exceptionally important.
"In Australia, we expect a significant expansion of our LNG industry - not just in the area of the North West Shelf and in the Northern Territory, but also in the East through coal seam methane. There is a rich, mutually beneficial opportunity to improve our LNG trading relationship.
"I hope that relationship will include increasing investment in Australian resources. We are a nation built on foreign investment and we are very keen to work with Korean companies wanting to invest in Australia. AustCham has an important role to play in fostering our future trade and investment relationship."
Minister Ferguson also noted the importance of Korean tourism and, despite a recent decline in visitor numbers, assured AustCham that we are constantly working to improve the tourism experience of Korean visitors, including improvements in air services and the quality of our tourism products and services.