THE Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Councillor Campbell Newman, will this month lead a prominent business and trade delegation from Australia’s fastest growing region to investigate potential trade and investment opportunities with businesses throughout Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates..
The Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Councillor Campbell Newman said the delegation with some of Brisbane’s leading businesses would meet with industry leaders in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai (between 26 January to 5 February).
“The main purpose of leading this diverse range of Brisbane businesses is to explore mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities between Brisbane, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates,” the Lord Mayor said.
Representatives from Brisbane’s building and construction industry, the education sector, food and beverages sector, engineering disciplines, information and communications, technology and the environment sectors will participate in the mission.
Councillor Newman said that Brisbane was the capital of the Australian State of Queensland and was situated in the State’s rapidly growing south-east region.
“Brisbane is currently enjoying a very exciting period of growth and is now the centre of the second fastest growing region in the western world.
“As the third largest municipality in the world, containing Australia’s fastest growing industrial, international trade and business precinct, Brisbane has much to offer international business interests and we are also keen to explore business interests in Bahrain and the UAE” Cr Newman said.
“Economic growth in Brisbane is running at more than four per cent, well above the Australian average. This is being fuelled by market expansion in the property and business services, retail, health and community services, and the manufacturing and construction sectors.”
The Lord Mayor said that with the diverse range of industry sectors represented on the mission, there was clearly great potential to increase trade and investment between Brisbane and Bahrain and the Emirates States.
“This delegation is designed to foster long-term cultural and economic relationships with businesses in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, which we have identified as key emerging markets for Brisbane investment,” Cr Newman said.
Around 1,500 people move to South-East Queensland each week. Brisbane is recognised as the economic and employment hub of the region, and an additional one million residents are expected to live there by the year 2026.
Inviting increased investor interest from Bahrain and the UAE to meet with the visiting delegation from Australia, the Lord Mayor said a number of international companies, including Boeing, Virgin, IBM, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems, were already establishing themselves in the Brisbane market.
The upcoming visit to Bahrain follows an earlier visit to the country by Mr David Regan, CEO of Brisbane Marketing, who initiated discussions with Mr Akram Miknas, Chairman of Promoseven.
The visit to the UAE follows the invitation by His Excellency, Dr Saeed Mohammed Al Shamsi, UAE Ambassador to Australia, to the Lord Mayor of Brisbane to lead a mission to investigate business opportunities between the two regions.
The Lord Mayor will also invite a delegation of civic, commercial and cultural representatives from Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai to visit the 2007 Asia Pacific Cities Summit, which is being held in Brisbane, Australia, in September this year.
Business from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates interested in meeting with the Brisbane trade delegation are asked to contact Chris Jenkins at AUSTRADE on +973 3995 7522.
