The Australia China Business Council recently held its annual networking day in Canberra. Former Australian trade officials and business people who attended the event said in an interview with Xinhua that in the face of high inflation, the new crown epidemic and other global challenges, China's economy shows resilience and potential, Australian enterprises are optimistic about the Chinese market and economic prospects, and look forward to deepening economic and trade cooperation with Chinese enterprises.


  China's National Bureau of Statistics recently released data show that in August, the national economy continued to resume the development trend, production demand has risen steadily, employment and prices are generally stable, most indicators better than last month. During the month, the value added of industries above national scale grew by 4.2% year-on-year, 0.4 percentage points faster than the previous month; total retail sales of consumer goods grew by 5.4% year-on-year, 2.7 percentage points faster than the previous month.

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  Former Australian Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb said his overall impression from attending the networking day was that the participants had a positive and optimistic attitude and were looking forward to the Chinese economy and market. The world economy is currently facing some difficulties, while China's economy has great potential and the ability to cope with challenges.


  Rob said that Australia and China have strong economic and trade complementarities and a strong foundation for cooperation, and bilateral trade volume has been growing almost every month since the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement came into effect at the end of 2015. In the future, he expects bilateral trade and investment to continue to increase and business and trade exchanges between the two countries to continue to deepen.


  In 2021, China continues to maintain its position as Australia's largest goods trading partner, import source and export market. According to Chinese statistics, bilateral trade volume in 2021 will be about US$231.2 billion, up 35.1% year-on-year. Of this, China's imports from Australia will be US$164.82 billion, up 40.6 percent year-on-year.


  The overall atmosphere of the networking day was positive and enthusiastic, and the Australian business and enterprise sectors were generally optimistic about the Chinese market and economic outlook, said the chairman of the Global Cooperation Committee of the Business Council of Australia, Willy Shi (English name Warwick Smith).

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  He said Australia currently imports a large and diverse range of products from China, and bilateral trade is highly complementary. Although the new crown epidemic has posed challenges to the interaction between the two sides in areas such as trade and tourism, in the long run, the two countries have close trade relations and humanistic exchanges, and there are broad prospects for future cooperation in areas such as combating climate change and research and development of new technologies.


  Tim Ford, CEO of Ausfamil Wine Group, told reporters that the general attitude of the participating companies is to continue cooperation, and he is looking forward to deepening cooperation with the Chinese wine industry. "Our role as a business is to continue to build and nurture the relationship between Australian and Chinese businesses." He said.