Darwin 12 June 2013. The Country Liberals Government is engaging with our Northern Australian neighbours and the Commonwealth to deliver strategic development to the Territory.

The Northern Australia Ministerial Forum (NAMF) will be held in Cairns on 13-14 June and brings together relevant Ministers from the Commonwealth, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The Territory will be represented by Minister for Regional Development, Alison Anderson, and Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries, Willem Westra van Holthe.

This approach is an important opportunity as the Territory Government looks to expand links between Northern Australia and Asia.

Asian engagement is high priority for the Territory Government with a Business Exchange Forum to be held later this year in Darwin. This comes after Chief Minister Adam Giles and Minister for Business David Tollner recently held high level talks with significant business leaders and government officials in Indonesia, Singapore and China.

Ms Anderson says the forum is an excellent opportunity for governments to come together and coordinate our approach to developing Northern Australia.

“I will be discussing the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN) and some of the issues that remote communities are facing.

“After the last NAMF in November 2012 an inter-jurisdictional working group was established to further engage with NBN Co to fully identify these issues, I will update the forum on the progress of the working group.”

Mr Westra van Holthe said the forum provided an important opportunity to look at industry from a holistic northern perspective.

“Projects like Stage 3 of the Ord Irrigation System will be discussed with all the relevant Ministers at the table,” Mr Westra van Holthe said.

"Across our jurisdictions we are all working together to achieve great things for Northern Australia.”