I want to acknowledge and thank Mr Michiaki Hirose, Chairman of the JABCC, Mr Akira Ichikawa, Chairman of the JNZBC and Mr Hamish Cooper, New Zealand Ambassador to Japan.
2025 will be another big year, it is of course Kansai Osaka Expo year, we must make the most of that opportunity and we will.
I also want to say that yesterday [15 January] was the anniversary of the Australian Japan Free Trade Agreement. So 10 years since that agreement came into force. This chamber and those people on the Australian side of it, I think many of you worked quite hard to bring that into force, into effect. Many of you have also benefitted from it. And so our commercial partnership has grown a lot in that ten years and the world around us has changed a huge amount, so by any measure our trade and investment relationship is a great success.
And in 2025 there are huge opportunities to explore, including in new areas like cyber security, defence industry, basically anywhere we are looking for a combination of economic complementarity and strategic alignment. Australia and Japan together will allow our business communities I think to flourish.
Our partnership with New Zealand is very important. Australia, Japan and New Zealand, we like transparency, we like the rule of law, we like free trade and open investment and economic integration. And this Chamber can keep advancing and pursuing that agenda no matter what happens around us. Because at a time of turbulence you need to know who your friends are and you need to work even harder than before to create opportunity for everybody. Liz Cox at the Embassy and her team at Austrade and Peter Roberts and the rest of the team at the Embassy, we are here at your disposal to help your interests in and with Japan and to support our two-way trade and investment connections.
Thank you very much. Happy New Year.