The boom in economic cooperation and trade between China and Australia has all the reason to continue successfully despite its eye-catching high speed, said Chinese Ambassador to Australia Fu Ying on the eve of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's four-day visit to Australia starting on April 1.

This is because the two economies are highly complementary to each other, as Australia's strong resources and hi-tech industries match with China's competitive manufacturing "as perfectly as gear wheels," she explained in an interview with Xinhua.

Wen's visit is seen as a fresh boost to economic ties.

The two-way trade, which began when diplomatic ties were launched in 1972, used to be fairly inactive. It took as long as 24 years to grow from US$100 million to 5 billion.

However, trade started to pick up speed in the late 1990s and broke the US$10 billion barrier in 2002, and the 20 billion-dollar threshold just two years later. Last year saw the annual figure standing at US$27.25 billion.

China is now Australia's second largest goods trading partner and its second largest overseas market. Energy and mineral products account for about 60 percent of Australia's exports to China, which has become Australia's largest buyer of iron ore and nickel.

China is also a key tourist source for Australia with 300,000 people visiting the country last year. It is also the largest source of foreign students for the country.
About one third of Australia's imported personal computers and one fifth of telecommunications equipment imports come from China, according to Australian official figures.

Meanwhile, the negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement which was launched in May last year has entered a substantive stage. If agreed, the deal will be a historic milestone in the bilateral relationship as economists of both countries have said.

Fu is confident that the rapid development of trade and economic relations will keep its tempo "as long as the two countries continue to create favorable conditions and seek to expand new areas of cooperation."

She said bilateral ties would feature diversified and sustainable cooperation in the future, highlighting increased service trade, two-way investment, joint research and development and exchanges of technical and management experience.

China's newly-announced 11th Five-Year Plan contains even more opportunities for Sino-Australian cooperation, the ambassador said.

Some parts of the plan, like China's hunting for diversified energy supplies around the world, the pursuit of a resource-saving and environmental-friendly society and the endeavour to lift the nation's scientific and technological levels, are identified as areas where Australian businesses can play a big role, she said.

Fu said the rapid development of trade and economic cooperation had benefited much from a stable political relationship between the two countries, which have seen frequent exchanges of high-level visits during the past few years.

Wen is the third Chinese leader to visit Australia in the past two and half years, after Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2003 and Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, in 2005, while Australian Prime Minister John Howard has been to China five times since he assumed office a decade ago.

She said Wen's visit came at a time when both countries were longing for a closer relationship. Therefore, she continued, it would surely serve to cement the political trust between the two countries and help advance all-round bilateral cooperation.

It is expected that a series of documents and contracts of trade and economic cooperation will be signed during Wen's visit -- the first leg of his four-nation-tour which also includes Fiji, New Zealand and Cambodia.