Melbourne
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Introduction
It is my absolute pleasure to be here this morning to address the inaugural Australia Arab Business Forum and Expo.
This is an incredibly important initiative - providing an opportunity to further strengthen ties between Australia and the Gulf States.
I congratulate the Chamber of Commerce and Industry on its work in making this a reality.
In years to come, I'm sure many new partnerships – both in Australia and in the Arab world – will owe a debt to what happens at this forum in Melbourne, so thank you.
Now I know my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd had hoped to be here to address you.
His commitment to Australia's relationship with the Arab world is very clear and like myself, he has visited the region this year to do further work in this regard - including on critical initiatives such as the strategic dialogue and a potential Free Trade Agreement.
Another of my colleagues, the Minister for Trade Craig Emerson will talk to you tomorrow in detail about our trade and investment relationship with the Middle East and North Africa.
Today I would just like to talk briefly about some of the emerging business opportunities in my own portfolios, and the growing exchange of people and business expertise.
Tourism
As Minister for Tourism I am of course delighted to see such good attendance today and I am sure we will only see the number of delegates grow at subsequent events.
Tourism is an important part of the relationship between Australia and the Arab world.
Australia welcomed 116,000 visitors from the Middle East and North Africa last year.
Between them, they contributed $414 million to the Australian economy.
Our forecasters expect arrivals from that part of the world to grow by about 10 per cent a year on average.
That would mean 310,000 arrivals a year by 2020.
By then, the value of this market would be worth $1.3 billion to Australia.
In the other direction, nearly 200,000 short-term visitors left Australia last year for the Middle East and North Africa.
The number of those outbound visitors has been rising by nearly 10 per cent a year over the past four or five years.
My recent visit to the United Arab Emirates vividly illustrated how tourism is broadening the region's economy.
Museums, race tracks, theme parks and galleries attract more visitors and with them business opportunities.
The growth in air services between Australia and the Gulf is central to this growth in travel.
V Australia and Etihad are giving travellers a glimpse of the expanded choice that comes with new capacity.
In your travels around Melbourne you will no doubt pass Etihad stadium – headquarters to the AFL.
Emirates too is increasing its profile in Australia not least by sponsoring what is arguably our biggest national sporting event – the Melbourne Cup.
Emirates is also investing in tourism infrastructure such as the award-winning Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
It joins the ranks of luxury resorts servicing high-yield markets, and I hope to see more such projects in coming years.
To investors across the Arab world, there has never been a better time to invest in Australian tourism infrastructure.
We have a shortage of hotel rooms in our cities and the highest accommodation occupancy rates in the OECD.
Room rates are going up, visitor numbers are up and governments across Australia are working together to remove barriers to investment.
Time and again Australia's tourism industry has shown its resilience.
During the global financial crisis Australia held steady in terms of visitor arrivals when global trends were headed downwards.
The fast recovery of operators following recent natural disasters, particularly in Queensland and here in Victoria, is further testament to the enduring strength of this industry.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank representatives from the Gulf for their participation in the recent diplomatic delegation that visited Queensland, led by Mr Rudd. This support is appreciated and will further bolster recovery efforts.
Resources and Energy
But opportunities for investment by no means end with our tourism sector.
Australia's resource and energy sectors are currently experiencing some of the highest terms of trade in our history.
Our natural resources are fuelling development of truly significant proportions.
The pipeline of investment, of new projects, is at record levels.
The Arab world too shares a rich endowment of fossil fuels.
It understands the need for expertise, for skills and for labour to realise the opportunities this presents.
Encouraging innovation, constantly seeking to improve health, safety and operating standards, and investing in skills and training are all priorities for the Australian Government.
So too is facilitating investment and promoting opportunities for further development.
Earlier this week the Australian Government announced its approval of a new framework that effectively opens up a whole new mineral province for development in Australia.
The area known as the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia is roughly the same size as England and is highly prospective for copper, gold, iron ore and uranium.
If expansion plans are approved next year then Olympic Dam, also in South Australia, could potentially be the world's biggest mine.
Geological work undertaken to date suggest that its twin could be located in the new frontier of the Woomera Prohibited Area.
On the east coast of Australia we have a fast growing coal seam gas to LNG industry with investment of over $30 billion so far.
Earlier this month I witnessed the signing of the largest ever LNG sales and purchase agreement by volume in Australia's history – a deal some commentators have estimated to be worth around $90 billion over its 20 year life.
Within five years, we expect Australia to be one of the world’s biggest exporters of LNG, second only to Qatar.
That's on top of our position as the biggest exporter of coal and the nation with the world's largest uranium reserves.
This underlines one of Australia's key advantages as a reliable and trusted supplier located on the doorstep of some of the world's fastest growing and most commodity-hungry economies.
All these examples demonstrate that the investment opportunities on offer are world class.
As Minister for Resources and Energy I also take great pride in Australia's role as a world leader in mining technology services and equipment.
Without them, many projects wouldn't be viable.
Australia's mining technology services and equipment sector is worth around $9 billion a year.
Around one-third of those products and services are exported.
This kind of world-class expertise turns simple exports into value-added exports, and often brings the benefits of technology transfers with it.
The growing push to source energy from cleaner sources opens up another avenue for co-operation and investment.
For the first time in 2009 we mapped out in detail Australia's energy resources.
The Australian Energy Resource Assessment as it is known showed that across this nation there are vast new opportunities – especially in solar, geothermal, ocean and biomass.
Each innovation helps to drive down costs and makes renewable energy technology more competitive.
International partnerships are particularly important when it comes to driving this innovation.
The UAE is of course home to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and Australia has recently been elected to the Council.
IRENA is an important forum through which we can share knowledge and accelerate the technological breakthroughs needed to enable us to make the most of our renewable energy sources.
During my visit to the UAE, I saw some of the pioneering work being undertaken as part of the Masdar City geothermal project.
Making the necessary breakthroughs on geothermal is an important area of work we have in common.
Other clean energy technologies are also the subject of collaboration such as carbon capture and storage.
Work in this field is being supported through the Global CCS Institute established by Australia and which has recently welcomed its 300th member.
There is no question that clean and renewable energy technology is challenging and early stage development is costly.
International partnerships are vital to addressing both these challenges, which in turn will open up vast new investment opportunities.
Conclusion
This morning I have touched on some of the possibilities.
These are but a few examples of the many on offer.
Whether they be in resources, energy, tourism, education, agriculture or research and innovation they are plentiful and varied.
In conclusion let me welcome you once again to this all important forum and encourage you to seek out the many other options open to you.
I wish you every success for the forum and expo.