Spent one week in Padang, Sumatra Indonesia, celebrating 20 years friendship city relationship.

I was invited by the City of Padang Mayor to lead the delegation and was so proud to witness the Fremantle Mayor be the keynote speaker at the Indian Ocean Local Government Forum which was attended by around 70 mayors and local government leaders from the region.

Governor Mahyeldy was a wonderfully generous and thoughtful leader, he was especially nice of him to make Fremantle Mayor an honorary citizen of Padang.

The Fremantle delegation included representatives from the Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, Fremantle Ports, the Indonesia Diaspora  Business Council, Indonesia language organizations, and the WA State Government. It was a packed itinerary that we hope will yield some tangible results.

Huge opportunities in the economic relationship between

Australia and Padang

Indonesia is Australia’s nearest neighbor, a rapidly developing country of over 250 million people (which is largest economy in South-east Asia and the 16th biggest economy in the world)  but our trade with Indonesia is less than it is with New Zealand that has less than 5 million people!

Between Padang and Fremantle there is huge opportunities that go beyond the cultural exchanges that have defined the last 20 years to move into a stronger focus on:

• reciprocal tourism promotion including sporting events and festivals
• education including links between Australian universities
• sustainable low, cost building was a particularly interesting theme to emerge out of the meetings as was supply of material including concrete building panel

The conclusion 

the delegation came away with is that there is considerable opportunity for Fremantle and West Australia more generally to expand its trade, investment and economic cooperation relationship with Indonesia.