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Li Yuanchao, member of the Political Bureau and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, met with John Brumby, governor of Victoria State of Australia, and his party on February 15, 2008. Li Xiaolin, vice president of the CPAFFC, Gao Shiqi, secretary general of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, and Liu Jieyi, assistant foreign minister, were present at the meeting.

Li Yuanchao said, currently Sino-Australian relations are developing smoothly with frequent high-ranking exchanges of visits and increasingly strengthened mutual political trust. During his successful visit to Australia last September, President Hu Jintao and the Australian leaders reached important consensus on the development of bilateral relations, injecting new vitality into the relationship. After Kevin Rudd was elected prime minister of Australia, Premier Wen Jiabao was one of the first foreign state leaders tosend messages of congratulations to him. Li believed that with the concerted efforts of the governments and people of the two countries bilateral relations would surely make greater development.

Li said, since Jiangsu Province and Victoria State twinned friendship-province/state relations in 1979, they have carried out extensive exchanges and cooperation in the economic, cultural, sports, educational and health fields. This time Governor Brumby would visit Jiangsu again, hoping to further promote friendly relations between the two localities. Li said, ten years ago I visited Victoria State and Melbourne, whose beautiful scenery left a good impression on me. I have a deep affection for my home place Jiangsu. Jiangsu and Victoria are both the economically most developed areas in their respective countries, and close cooperation between them will surely further promote the development of relations between the two countries.

Governor Brumby said, the many visits he has paid to China have made him feel quite familiar with the country. This time he came to China for the first time in the capacity of governor since he assumed the post last July. While in Beijing, his delegation had meaningful discussions with various Chinese departments concerned mainly on the sustainable development which was becoming a more and more important issue. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attaches great importance to this issue. His first overseas visit was to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. During his delegationvisit in China, in its talks with the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Water Resources and at the forum jointly held by the Australian side and the China Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, the two sides focused their discussion on sustainable development. Australia and China have their respective advantages and cooperation between the two sides in the field of sustainable development, particularly clean energy has great potentials.

Li said, China is now at the stage of rapid development and faces a severe test, i.e. how to make this speedy development sustainable. The most striking problem China is facing is that its own resources plus those it can import from other countries are insufficient to support it in carrying on its current mode of development. So far, an effective way of controlling pollution caused by the large scale of industrial construction has not yet been found in China, a big country with a population of 1.3 billion people.

Li said, in the past, Australia with less fertile land than China was not a very liveable continent. But through the concerted efforts of the Australian people including immigrants from all over the world, Australia is now becoming more and more suitable for living. About 3,000 to 5,000 years ago, China was a good human habitat where Chinese civilization was originated. Owing to the vicissitude of nature, especially wars and other man-caused damages, China is not as liveable as it used to be. Thousands of years ago, the loess plateau in Chinas northwest used to be covered by forests, but now only loess and bushes are left in many places. The famous Silk Road used to be a green belt, but now it has become deserts. Thus, we not only need to produce grain, cloth, automobiles and other daily necessities, we need all the more to protect our environment. We hope through efforts of several generations to again make China a place more suitable for living. What China needs to do now is much more difficult than what Australia does. A populous China with less land per capita has many problems peculiar to itself. The country is now working hard to find ways to solve them and earnestly learning advanced experience from other countries. Australia started to tackle these problems earlier than China and has much good experience worth learning by China. Li hoped that relevant departments of the two countries would strengthen contacts and cooperation in realizing sustainable development. To do a good job in environmental protection and sustainable development will be a great contribution to the development of human society.

Governor Brumby said, Australia is also facing the challenges confronting China, though they are not as serious as those China is facing. The best way to solve these problems is to make scientific researches and technological innovation. He said, at present, Victoria and Jiangsu have carried out fruitful cooperation. The year 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the twinning of friendship ties between them, and the two sides will hold a series of activities to celebrate it.