Australia welcomes Chinese firms in building infrastructure

SHANGHAI - Australia encourages Chinese enterprises to join in building the country's infrastructure, the Australian Prime Minister said in Shanghai on Friday.

"I want to be the infrastructure prime minister of Australia," Tony Abbott said at a press conference in Shanghai.

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The Power Construction Corporation of China (POWERCHINA) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Australian state of Victoria.

POWERCHINA and the state government of Victoria promise in the MOU to cooperate and jointly carry out investment and development of major local infrastructure projects. POWERCHINA will establish a regional head office in the state.

Established in 2011, POWERCHINA provides planning, investigation, design, consulting and manufacturing services in the fields of hydropower, thermal power, new energy and infrastructure.

Danis Napthine, governor of Victoria, said the government welcomes overseas enterprises such as POWERCHINA to join in the construction of local railway, harbor, airport and real-estate projects.

Australian Prime Minister Abbott has led a group of 600 delegates to China to seek economic cooperation in a wider range of fields.

Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed that Sino-Australian trade volume reached $136.44 billion last year.

A week-long "China-Australian Week" event was held starting April 8 in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu to further cooperation between the two countries in fields such as trade, investment, finance and consumption.