CIIE help reinforce China-Australia trade ties: minister

Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism, and Investment Steven Ciobo. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

The Australian Trade Minister says he will encourage more Australian companies to register for the China International Import Expo, in a bid to improve bilateral trade and relations.

Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism, and Investment Steven Ciobo has made the remarks after witnessing the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Austrade and the China International Import Expo Bureau.

The signing of the document came as part of a three-day official visit to Shanghai by the minister.

Steven Ciobo says he's happy to see that Australia is the first country to be invited to take part in the China International Import Expo.

"Today I had the opportunity to witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the forthcoming CIIE. There's a lot of interest from Australian businesses about participating in this. I think it will be an extraordinary showcase, not just for those businesses that are coming from Australia to China, but also importantly for China just to show the scale of opportunity and of course it also delivers upon President Xi's vision about continuing to open up China to the world, about continuing to make sure that there is more investment flying into China," says Ciobo.

84 Australian companies have committed to participate in the Expo, which will be held in Shanghai in November.

Minister Steven Ciobo vowed that Australia will take this opportunity to present many of its best products and services to Chinese consumers.

"On each occasion, President Xi (Jinping) spoke about China's desire to continue open up its economy to further investment, Australia welcomes that. We think that's an important part of the reform process from China, but it's also an important opportunity for countries to be able to invest in China and to help contribute to the success story that is China's growth," says Ciobo.

The visit by Ciobo this week was his 13th trip to China over the past three years, and it is the first visit by an Australian minister to China in the last 8 months.

The visit has been seen as an ice-breaker after several months of cooling relations between the two countries, which the minister alluded to during his comments to the media.

"There is from time to time areas where we disagree, but what matters is that we approach in a mature way, in a respectful way, recognizing that we don't have to agree all the time, but that we need to have a very open line of communication between Australia and China. I think through dialog, we can sort out and resolve differences. So my focus is upon all the areas where we can work in partnership rather than getting too worried about a small number of areas where there are differences," says Ciobo.

He also called for a strengthening of the flow of trade between the two sides.