First Minister Jack McConnell and Steve Bracks, Premier of the State
of Victoria, have issued a joint statement welcoming progress since the
sister state agreement between Scotland and the Australian State was
signed a year ago today.
The statement said that Scotland and Victoria were going to agree a
formal action plan later this year, and that in the next twelve months
they hope to extend cooperation into new areas such as fire services
and futures research, as well as extending the scope of cooperation on
life sciences.
In the last year, representatives of Scotland's Colleges and the
Scottish Qualifications Authority have visited Victoria and identified
a number of areas for ongoing collaboration and joint work, including
on NEETs and Scotland's Credit and Qualifications Framework.
Invest Victoria has seconded a senior official to work at Scottish
Development International for three months to gain a better
understanding of the organisation and improve links for future
collaboration.
Scotland and Victoria are working closely together to develop a
Tourism Action Plan, identifying potential areas for future
collaboration and high level meetings have been held between the
Victorian Major Events Company and EventScotland to share information
and discuss case studies and models of managing events.
A Victorian mission has also visited Scotland to discuss cancer
strategies including prevention and screening programmes, service
provision and quality assurance with NHS Scotland clinical teams.
Future work includes discussions on tackling diabetes, reciprocal
visits by fire officials and a joint proposal between the Universities
of Melbourne and Edinburgh to establish links in the area of stem cells
and neuroscience.
The sister state relationship is for an initial period of three
years from the date of the declaration, with an option to extend this
after the initial period.
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