China lures Barnett for second trip
Colin Barnett will make his second trip to China in four months next week, visiting Zhejiang province for the 25th anniversary of one of WA's most enduring sister-state relationships.
The Premier will have three days of meetings in Hangzhou, the provincial capital, and Shanghai, 180km to the north.
Zhejiang province, with 54 million people, gets about 24 million tonnes of WA iron ore a year through the Ningbo port.
Mr Barnett said he wanted the "relationship building" visit to further broaden the economic relationship beyond raw materials for steelmaking.
His visit to China in June was centred on Beijing and talks with government and business leaders.
This trip was to build on the sister-state relationship and broaden it into agriculture, science, tourism and other areas to widen WA's economy.
Mr Barnett said WA supplied 70 per cent of Australia's exports to China and 80 per cent of Chinese state-owned investment in Australia came to WA.
