China plays critical role in enhancing global collaboration: Australian politicians

With the global economic outlook improving by leaps and bounds in recent times, driven by extraordinary growth in Asia, ongoing collaboration and partnerships with the broader worldwide economy will continue to be crucial to ensuring positive outcomes of prosperity around the globe.

China has a critical role to play in this positive growth and is currently on track to exceed the 6.5 percent GDP growth target set for this year, prominent former Australian federal minister Andrew Robb said.

Meanwhile importantly, China will serve as the "centre of gravity" for global political, and economic life, Robb told Xinhua in an interview recently.

While the stellar growth that China has been able to achieve has had a remarkable impact around the world, the domestic impact of the economic success in recent times has also shaped the entire nation for the better, in particular, the emergence of the burgeoning middle class.

"The maintenance of very strong growth rates has led to the continued introduction of millions and millions of more people into the middle class," Robb said.

"These previously impoverished people are now, in many cases, starting to experience the quality of life that many other people in the developed world experience."

This growth in China has a measurable impact around the world, with a recent IMF report in April outlining that China's absorption of trade since the year 2000 has been "increasingly important in accounting for growth in other emerging market and developing economies."

But Robb said that the focus should not lie solely on China's trade benefits, but rather the ongoing willingness to collaborate with nations around the world.

Collaboration with other nations can take many forms, but none are as resoundingly evident as the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to build a Silk Road Economic Belt, and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in co-operation with countries around the globe.

According to former Attorney General of Australia Philip Ruddock, the Belt and Road Initiative demonstrates the willingness of China to develop mutually beneficial relationships with nations around the world.

"There is a focus, particularly on economic growth, and China is playing a part. Particularly through the Belt and Road Initiative, creating opportunities for growth in other parts of the world. That's a good thing," Ruddock told Xinhua recently.

"I think it is very desirable that China thinking about ways in which it can engage more with the countries around it, through economic development, and through growth of opportunities, through building important infrastructure, all of that is possible."

The development of collaborative relationships has not been limited to the Belt and Road Initiative, so with the increasing shift within China towards the fields of science and innovation, and the participation in global technological efforts as a direct result, Robb said, adding he believes this could usher in a new era of global prosperity.

"Technology will be a big part of overcoming the world's problems, research and development will be very important - 80 of all of the scientists who have ever lived are alive today - the critical mass of highly educated, and highly skilled workforces and professions is such, that we can see a mass acceleration in dealing with so many of the world's challenges," Robb said.

"If there is a lot of collaboration, multidisciplinary collaboration, inter-country collaboration, we can deal with these challenges because for the first time in history we've got such a concentration in the globe of educated, and talented scientists, engineers, and everything else."

To achieve these ends, the focus must also be turned to enhancing the interpersonal and cultural relationships between Chinese people, and people from around the globe, and Robb said that all developed nations around the world must make continued efforts to facilitate the ongoing cooperative, and peaceful relations, with the result of these positive interactions providing tremendous benefit to all mankind.

"A lot of it is communication, a lot of it is developing mutual respect with one another, and that puts the onus on countries, especially the leading powers to ensure that the interests, strengths, and livelihoods of people in smaller economies are respected - and that we do have an integrated region - one which exhibits stability, security, peace, and prosperity at the same time," Robb said.

"So the opportunities are really quite spectacular over the next 30 to 40 years, but we all have to work very hard in building that sense of understanding, and tolerance," he added.

"A lot of it is just mutual respect. Getting to know one another, building the linkages, building the relationships - and if we do that successfully, then I think the world is in for a very special time."