China -- Country with Tremendous Opportunities: Australian FM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 08, 2002

China -- Country with Tremendous Opportunities: Australian FM

Australia does not view China as a threat but instead looks at it as a country with tremendous opportunities, its Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Monday.

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Australia does not view China as a threat but instead looks at it as a country with tremendous opportunities, its Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Monday.

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s East Asia Economic Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Downer said in fact both countries had just negotiated a 13.81 billion US dollars liquefied natural gas (LNG) export contract spanning over 20 years, the largest export contract in Australia's history.

He said that China is currently Australia's third largest trade partner after the United States and Japan, but he predicted that China would become its largest partner in the next 15 years.

Commenting on the uneasiness by some ASEAN countries fearing that China is sucking most of the foreign direct investments (FDIs) coming into the region, he said ASEAN should not view China as a threat. Rather, a strong China economically is going to be a wonderful boon to East Asia.

Downer said that there will be times when other countries have comparative advantage but as their prosperity rises, opportunities developed. ASEAN, he said, needs to continuously go through economic restructuring and make adjustments.

On relations with Southeast Asian countries, he said Australia's ultimate aim is to have a full free trade pact with ASEAN.

Australia is expected to conclude its free trade agreement (FTA) with Singapore next month and has entered into FTA negotiation with Thailand.

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