Australia’s Victoria State has identified auto manufacturing and food as opportunities for its businessmen in the UAE.

John Brumby, the state’s premier, said education, urban planning, tourism and facilities management were other sectors Victoria businessmen could consider when considering their reach into the UAE.

Brumby, on a two-day visit to the UAE in mid-May, said the UAE was Victoria’s 10th largest export destination and second largest Middle East trading partner with goods exports worth $604 million in 2008-09.

The UAE was also a nearly $200 million market for Victorian-made passenger cars and Victorian company Volgren, in partnership with Hafilat Industries, was building 14 new buses for the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport, he said.

“This partnership is also bidding to build up to 850 additional buses for the Abu Dhabi Department of Transport which will open up a major new export opportunity for Volgren.”

Room for export growth

The premier said there was clearly room for export growth in the UAE both in goods and in professional services and the Victorian Government was determined to develop those opportunities. “For example, the Victorian International School of Sharjah which will eventually accommodate 2,600 students, had both its facilities and curriculum designed in Victoria.

The premier opened the senior school of the Victorian International School of Sharjah and met with senior Government and business leaders in the region.

The premier also announced that Bendigo Regional Institute of TAFE (Brit) had been successful in winning a tender to host 40 Emirati Secondary School students in July for its summer programme.