Australia to cash in on China's economic growth

In May, the number of tourist arrivals from China hit 50,000, an increase of 17 percent year-on-year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Deloitte Access Economics estimates that Chinese tourists, who accounted for 2.4 percent of all visitors to Australia in 2004, will make up 13.3 percent of the market by 2014.

Chen said that despite the positive and upward trend of bilateral trade, the two nations should accelerate "diversifying" the trade structure from largely centering on mineral goods.

"Bilateral trade exchanges could expand into a wider range of goods and services in agriculture, technology, education, culture and tourism," he said.

"And also, the two need to expand two-way investment."

Earlier this year, China and Australia signed a $31 billion currency swap agreement, in a bid to promote bilateral trade and investment.

While the Chinese government has encouraged domestic companies to invest abroad in recent years, Australia has witnessed the fast growth of capital inflow from China.

In 2011, China's outbound direct investment in Australia surged 86 percent year-on-year to $3.17 billion, according to the Ministry of Commerce. By the end of 2011, China's cumulative outbound direct investment, or ODI, in Australia accounted for 92 percent of that in Oceania.

"Many probably ignore the fact that China's investment scale in Australia is so small. China's ODI in Australia accounts for merely 2 to 3 percent of Australian foreign direct investment," Chen said.

So the ambassador believed there is a lot of room for the Chinese investment to grow. "Nobody from the two sides should doubt the growth. And the Australian government should encourage and support Chinese investment," he said.

While Chinese companies rack up investments in Australia, doubts over Chinese investment deals have surfaced in recent years.

But Chen said they are individual cases. "The majority of Australians, including the politicians, domestic companies and local people, welcome Chinese investment, as Chinese investment creates benefits for both sides," he said.

In July, opposition leader Tony Abbott raised concerns about investment proposals especially by Chinese State-owned enterprises, saying the Chinese investment is complicated. "It would rarely be in Australia's interests to allow a foreign government or its agencies to control an Australian business," Abbott said.

Earlier this year, Chinese telecom equipment provider Huawei Technologies missed out the bidding for the planned national broadband network by the Australian government because of information security concerns.

At the end of August, Australia approved a bid by Chinese textile group Shandong Ruyi for cotton farm Cubbie Station, which covers almost 1,000 square kilometers of southwestern Queensland state. But this ignited new concerns about Chinese investment in agriculture.