Cook talks up new Asia strategy

Asian engagement is still critical to the state’s trade agenda, Deputy Premier Roger Cook said today, while acknowledging the government may have muddled its messaging in recent weeks.

Speaking at an Australian Institute of Management WA summit on Asian engagement today, Mr Cook responded to ongoing concerns about a demotion of Asia as a priority for the government.

Chief among those were the abolition of the Asian engagement ministry, and moves to shake up the structure of trade offices.

Mr Cook said none of the state trade offices would be closed through the changes, and the restructure would instead modernise the state’s approach.

Part of the benefit will be an increased focus on investment, he said.

There are eight WA trade offices around the world, each of which was previously led by a trade commissioner.

In the new hub-and-spoke model, there will instead be five trade and investment commissioners responsible for regions, with local offices reporting to their respective commissioner.

A commissioner will be placed in Dubai and later could move to Mumbai; while a commissioner will be based in Singapore and likely eventually shift to Jakarta.

The Asian engagement portfolio would also be subsumed into Mr Cook’s responsibilities as trade minister.

“The perspective we had was that as minister for trade, Asian engagement should be 90 per cent of that work,” Mr Cook said.

“When you lose these labels, people think you lose emphasis.”

But the opposite would be the case, Mr Cook said, with Asian engagement effectively promoted to be the deputy premier's responsibility.

When asked if the government had made an own-goal by not getting on the front foot to explain the benefits of the changes, Mr Cook agreed.

“We did miss that opportunity to communicate that,” he said.

“I take that on the chin.”