Australia Geraldton Iron Ore Alliance and Australia China Business Council WA Branch held the "Mining the Mid West" forum together on 27th February which attracted dozens of Australian mining companies. Nearly one hundred guests from local mining and business industry attended this forum. Chinese Consul General Mr. LI Shugang attended the forum and made a speech. The mid-west region of WA is rich in the iron ore resources which has broad prospects for development. This provides the Chinese companies with more opportunities to go abroad to invest and develop the iron ore resources in cooperation with Australian companies.

Consul General Mr. LI gave a brief introduction of China's economic development first. He said, since the reform and opening up, especially since recent years, China's economy has developed rapidly. The GDP growth rate has exceeded 10% for the last five consecutive years. Last year, the foreign trade volume reached 2 trillion US dollars. China maintains a stable, sound and rapid development of national economy. Referring to the recent media's concern of Chinese enterprises' large scale investment in WA, he pointed out that the development of China and the development of the economic and trade relations between China and WA have brought tangible benefits not only to China but also to Australia, particularly to WA. The GDP growth rate of WA in 2007 is twice as fast as the average GDP growth rate of other states of Australia while the unemployment rate of WA is the lowest in Australia. In recent years, the bilateral trade volume continued to grow considerably. The development of economic and trade relations between China and WA is a model of mutual benefit and win-win.

Finally Consul General Mr. LI emphasized that China adheres to the road of peace and development and implements the open strategy of mutual benefit and win-win. He hoped that both China and Australia could work hard together and grasp the opportunity in order to make new contributions to the further development of bilateral relations and the achievement of the goal of mutual benefit and win-win.

Consul General Mr. LI's speech got a good response from all the participants.