PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett would use the Mining Indaba, in Cape Town, to foster a closer relationship with Africa, based on trade and investment in the mining and petroleum, education and training and agriculture sectors.

“The growth in Africa’s resources industry has led to greater competition for Western Australian projects,” Barnett said on Thursday.

“However, it has also presented the state with an opportunity to become a leading exporter in mining skills, technology and knowledge.”

The Premier was expected to deliver a keynote address at the Indaba, which would focus on how Western Australia had established a stable, consistent, regulatory system to support the development of its substantial mining and petroleum industry.

“The legislation and regulation governing Western Australia’s mining sector is world class, built up over more than 120 years of mining activity in the state,” the Premier said. “We have valuable experience when it comes to building a sustainable, mutually beneficial resources industry.”

In Zambia, Barnett will speak at a meeting of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), a regional economic organisation with 19 member States, including Zambia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

The Premier will also meet with mining Ministers from the member States, and sign a memorandum of understanding between Western Australia and Comesa pledging to develop a close and mutually beneficial relationship in the fields of minerals and petroleum, agriculture and agribusiness.

These developments come on the heels of the recent inauguration, in Johannesburg, of the not-for-profit organisation the Australian Business Chamber of Commerce Southern Africa (ABCSA), which has been set up to deepen the bilateral relationship between Australia and the Southern African countries by providing a networking platform to develop their business activities and promote trade.

Speaking to Mining Weekly earlier this month inaugural ABCSA chairperson Michael Templeton highlighted that there were more than 200 Australian companies, with more than 700 projects in mining exploration, extraction and processing, operating in 42 African countries.

“The ABCSA will draw on the large number of Australian mining companies that have business interests in Southern Africa, as well as a range of businesses in other sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure and education,” Australian High Commissioner and Ambassador to South Africa Graeme Wilson said at ABCSA's inauguration.