As we enter the homestretch of our first-ever trade mission to Australia, Thursday was an important day for four industries we're highlighting on our trip – MedTech, CleanTech, Agriculture and Higher Ed.

We started our day at a breakfast meeting with Australian business leaders to promote Minnesota as a place for them to invest as they seek expanded operations and more customers in the United States. Several Australian companies already operate in Minnesota – including MedTech industry leaders with whom we're meeting during this trip – making them among the 900 business locations from 40 countries that have invested $36.7 billion in Minnesota, generating 171,600 jobs for Minnesotans.

Governor Walz represented Minnesota in separate meetings with Victoria Governor Margaret Gardner and Deputy Premier Ben Carroll, where they discussed ties between Minnesota and Australia and opportunities to deepen collaboration with the State of Victoria, particularly in the MedTech sector and higher education.

Later, we visited the Jumar BioIncubator, a public-private project to foster MedTech innovation in Melbourne. Minnesota has a similar initiative underway with Destination Medical Center and DMC's Discovery Square. Given this shared priority of medical discovery, we discussed the prospect for an international exchange with the BioIncubator to help both of us realize the potential for creating new therapies and making the world a little heathier.

We then spoke at a luncheon hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia to encourage Australian companies to consider investing in Minnesota because of our shared commitment to developing our MedTech, CleanTech and Agriculture sectors, all driven by our innovative Higher Education institutions.

Later, alongside our Department of Agriculture colleagues, we visited the CSIRO Food Innovation Centre to see firsthand how Australia is developing new technology to continue to provide food in a changing climate – and to share how Minnesota farmers are doing the same.

While the Governor was at CSIRO, I visited Nutromics, a diagnostics wearables company working with the Medical Alley Association to analyze the U.S. market. We were excited to share more information about Minnesota's MedTech manufacturing and innovation prowess.

The governor then joined St. Cloud State University leaders as they signed an agreement with Victoria University to establish new short-term study-abroad programs and explore new curriculum to establish academic partnerships and student exchange.

We ended our day hosting a reception for over 100 government, business and academic leaders, as well as partner organizations in Melbourne, to share news of Minnesota's economic and industry strengths and to encourage collaborative trade and investment opportunities between Minnesota and Victoria.

We have one last day in Australia as we bring this historic trade mission to a close. We're excited about the closer ties we've fostered during this trip and know they'll pay dividends in the years ahead.