Visitors browse items at the Australian National Pavilion at the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing on September 12, 2024. Photo: Chu Daye/GT

A total of 20 Australian companies, organizations and institutions, including a number of universities, are attending the ongoing 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, as they look for opportunities to boost cooperation amid improving ties. 

The attendance to CIFTIS by Australian entities in 2024 has improved markedly from last year, amid an improvement of bilateral relations highlighted by a series of recent high-level interactions between officials of the two countries after years of frayed ties.

Dale Pinto, global president of CPA Australia Photo: Chu Daye/GT

At the CIFTIS, Dale Pinto, global president of CPA Australia, a global accountant organization, told the Global Times that the relationship with China, Australia's leading trade partner, is "absolutely critical."

"It is really important to us, in the opening ceremony on Thursday, to hear that China is ready to increase its collaboration and cooperation [with the world]," Pinto said.

According to Pinto, many of the challenges people face today cannot be addressed by one country alone and needs collaboration, such as emission control, and that's what makes the CIFTIS platform, which reinforces people-to-people exchange and cooperation, significant.

"We like to work with China. China is very advanced in many ways and can help Australia," Pinto said, noting that in other areas, Australia can help China as well. "It is a mutually beneficial relationship."

Australian representatives at the CIFTIS noted that a series of trade talks, high-level communications and official visits in the past two years sent really positive signals that the dialogue is really moving in a positive direction. And Australian companies and institutions are looking for opportunities in enhancing bilateral cooperation in several areas, including international education, green financing, digital transformation, and technological innovation.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers is visiting China later this month, according to Bloomberg, in another high-level visit by officials of the two countries.

"Those high-level visits between the two sides have sent a signal to our business communities that we are talking and we are engaging. And that's really important," Dominic Trindade, minister (commercial) at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Trade in services from Australia is quite diverse. A very large element of that is in the visitor economy - tourists, students, people visiting family and friends, and short-term business visitors. Those were affected during the pandemic years, according to the trade official.

"We'd like to see those links, those strong people-to-people links continue to build, but also looking at new avenues, new services, particularly in the technology areas, and in those areas around sustainability, environmental services [at the CIFTIS]," Trindade said.

"Australia's multi-year attendance to the CIFTIS attests to the long tradition of cooperation between our two countries in services trade. Also, we will have a range of other events during the next 12 months that will culminate in Australia being the CIFTIS country of honor in 2025," said Trindade.

Australia is China's seventh-largest trading partner, and China has become Australia's largest services export partner in 2023, public data showed.

Australia's services exports to China surged by more than A$5 billion ($3.36 billion) in 2023, reaching A$14.7 billion, accounting for 12.9 percent of the total service exports in the year.