The Department’s Korea Office and Perth Education City (PEC) recently successfully deployed Perth’s Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi to boost interest in WA, at a Study in Australia (SIA) event in Seoul - she stole the show.

The Lord Mayor received an overwhelmingly warm reception at the Austrade-organised event, where she spent three days attending workshops with Korean overseas study agents, Korean universities, and a WA Alumni function, to advocate Perth as a wonderful place to study and visit.

In 2008, Korea was Western Australia’s fourth largest source of overseas students, with 3,750 enrolments, recruitment has slowed, but PEC is expecting this intiative to reverse the trend.

Mike Ryan, Executive Director of PEC enthused: “The Lord Mayor works tirelessly to promote Australia and Perth and we witnessed her passion for this in abundance during the past five days.

Our Regional Director Korea, Jean Ough accompanied the Lord Mayor to all activities and provided interpreter services at meetings and seminars held throughout the program.