Australian Prime Minister John Howard Monday praised the agreement
between Australia and China on the former's supply of liquefied
natural gas to China's southern province of Guangdong.
Howard told top Chinese legislator Li Peng, who is on a weeklong
visit down under, that it is a significant event for Australia.
Deepening existing sound economic and trade co-operation dominated
Monday's meeting.
Li
also met Speaker of the House of Representatives Neil Andrew,
President of the Senate Paul Calvert and opposition Labor Party
leader, Simon Crean.
The North West Shelf consortium of Australia was picked in August
to supply 3.2 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually for 25
years to Guangdong.
The Australian side expressed its excitement Monday over its
largest single export order.
Howard said the project proved there is great potential in
bilateral economic and trade co-operation.
The prime minister said he believes that China's entry to the World
Trade Organization and its holding of the 2008 Olympic Games will
mark the beginning of more rapid economic growth.
Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National
People's Congress, said China is happy to see new progress made in
bilateral economic and trade co-operation.
China is Australia's third largest trading partner. Statistics
revealed the Sino-Australian trade volume reached US$8.9 billion
last year, up 6.5 percent on the previous year. In the first seven
months, it exceeded US$5.6 billion, a 17.9 percent increase on the
same period last year.
(China
Daily September 17, 2002)