| |
 |
SZ-Australia trade booms
|
Yang Yunfei
TRADE between China's Guangdong Province and Australia will benefit from China's imminent WTO entry, said David Irvine, Australia's Ambassador to China.
“We expect significant increase in Guangdong-Australia trade following China's WTO entry," said Irvine, who visited Shenzhen yesterday.
Irvine said that Australia-China bilateral trade grew by 40.9 per cent year on year to A$15.08 billion in 2000, citing figures released by Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In the same period, Australia's exports amounted to A$6.01 billion, up 46.9 per cent compared with 1999, while Chinese exports also saw an increase of 37.2 per cent to reach A$9.07 billion, Irvine said.
Irvine noted that Guangdong has played a very important role in Sino-Australia trade.
“One quarter of the Sino-Australian trade was conducted between Guangdong, of course including Shenzhen, and Australia," said Irvine.
“The figure must be much bigger if Hong Kong is added," he said.
Most Chinese exports to Australia, according to Irvine, are low added-value light industry products such as toys, footwear, manufacturing products and light electronics components.
While some primary products such as wool and iron ore continue to dominate Australia's exports to China, Irvine said that the past two years have witnessed some changes in the products traditionally dominating Australia's exports to China.
“Our exports have expanded into high and new technology and service sectors over the past two years," said Irvine.
Eyeing the huge Chinese market and great business opportunities to be created by China's prospective WTO entry, Irvine said, many Australian firms have already dabbled in banking, insurance and consultation to gain a foothold in China.
|
|
|
|
