An iron ore mining site in Australia Photo: cnsphoto

Top executives of some leading Australian companies are visiting China this spring to attend the Boao Forum for Asia and the China Development Forum, the Global Times learned.

The visits, following China's optimization of COVID response in December, will further improve bilateral relationship, which has lately taken a turn for the better, experts said.

They called on Canberra to create an amiable atmosphere for China-Australia economic cooperation, so that both nations could benefit from their economies' complementarity and recover faster from the pandemic.

Fortescue Metals Group, the world's No.4 iron ore producer, confirmed to the Global Times that Executive Chairman Andrew Forrest is planning to attend the Boao Forum for Asia, to be held on South China' s island province of Hainan in March. 

"We think it's important that Australia has a strong business presence there," said a spokesperson for Fortescue.

Collaboration is integral to driving the transition to green energy, and Fortescue is committed to engaging with customers in China and elsewhere, governments, suppliers and other players to facilitate the energy transition, the spokesperson said.

Forrest said for the commodities market, China's huge population and market is "ready to roll."

More Australian CEOs are coming to China, the Global Times learned. The visits come as Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell held a video conference in earlier February.

Top Australian miner Rio Tinto's CEO is expected to visit China in March while attending the China Development Forum in Beijing. Treasury Wine Estates CEO Tim Ford also plans to come to China in late March to meet Chinese wine clients.

Song Wei, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that these visits are yet another positive sign for bilateral economic cooperation, reflecting the highly complementary business ties.

Despite the pandemic, bilateral trade exceeded $220 billion last year.

This positive momentum will bode well for both countries, Song said, suggesting Canberra continue to create a favorable environment for growing bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Rio Tinto has agreed to enter a joint venture with China Baowu Steel Group Co in the Western Range iron ore project in Pilbara, investing $2 billion to develop the 25 million ton mining project, according to the 2022 full-year results released by Rio Tinto on Wednesday.

In 2023, China's trade promotion agency will organize multiple high-level economic and trade delegations to visit Australia, Yang Fan, a spokesperson of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Last week, China's Ministry of Commerce said that an "important window" had opened up in China-Australia economic and trade relations, and both sides should work together to inject more positive factors into their cooperation.

Australian coal exports to China have resumed gradually, according to industry insiders.

The ministry said that China has always opposed the wrong practices of generalizing the concept of national security and politicizing economic and trade issues, in response to Australia's reported move of removing Chinese-made surveillance cameras from defense sites.