NSW PM praises Australian ties with Asean nations

SYDNEY: Ms Gladys Berejiklian, Premier New South Wales (NSW) in her opening comments, Saturday, welcomed all visiting heads of Asean member countries.

She praised the contribution of migrants from Asean nations. She welcomed business and political leaders attending the Asean-Australia Special Summit in Sydney.

Delivering the keynote speech at an official welcome event at Government House last (Friday) night, Ms Berejiklian said migrants from Asean nations have made an outstanding contribution to NSW.

Around 3000 delegates from 10 Asean nations have arrived for this weekend’s special summit to discuss business and counter-terrorism.

Berejiklian said, “Our friendships with Asean nations run especially deep and we know these important relationships will only get stronger in the years ahead. Generations of South East Asian migrants have made an incredible contribution to the success, prosperity and harmony of NSW.”

Berejiklian held meetings with the prime ministers of Vietnam and Singapore yesterday (Friday) and will meet other ASEAN leaders this weekend.

Ms. Berejiklian said it has been an honour for Sydney to host this very special event and we welcome the opportunity to showcase our State to influential decision makers from the region.

“We already share deep friendships and thriving trade with ASEAN nations but I believe there is so much more to come and great untapped potential for the future.”

ASEAN is NSW’s second largest source of international students with nearly 54,000 studying here. Almost 300,000 NSW residents were born in ASEAN. NSW had 284,000 visitors from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore in 2016-17, injecting $655 million into our economy.