Mr. Alan Morrell, the newly appointed Vice Consul General and Senior Trade Commissioner of the Australian Consulate General in Guangzhou, disclosed in a recent interview that the Guangzhou-Australian trade volume accounted for 25% of the total. It was further noted that the portion of Sino-Australian trade Australian enterprises trade investment in placed in Guangdong's design industry, financial training and education services instead of the previous placements in industrial enterprises and plants. Australia's services to China have reached 78% of the trade volume between the two countries.

Mr. Morrell said that Australia would strengthen its exchanges with Guangzhou in 2008 and, as a result, a growing number of small and medium-sized investors are expected to invest in the Guangzhou market. In addition to traditional energy and construction sectors, more Australian enterprises are now focusing on services. Large investors usually pay attention to construction and building materials industries, and SMEs are more inclined to invest in education, design, financial training and the environmental protection fields. It is worth mentioning that many Australian Chinese are attracted by the Guangzhou market.

More than 200 Australian enterprises currently have investments in Guangdong province; 90 of them being in Guangzhou city.

Editor: Donald