Australia calls for broader ties with China

SYDNEY -- ANZ Bank Chief Executive Officer Mike Smith on Friday urged Australians to put more effort into building a much richer, broader relationship with China.

Speaking at an Australia-China Business Council function in Sydney, Smith warned that while China was Australia's largest trading partner and export market, as well as Australia's largest source of overseas students and tourists, the majority of Australians were challenged by developing relationship with China from trade, investment to stronger people connections.

"My own observation is that, over the last decade during the most dramatic phase of Chinese urbanization and industrialization ... we haven't been as active as we might have been in taking an over-arching view of the Australia-China relationship and its long-term health," Smith said.

He said the Lowy Institute poll in 2012 found that only 16 percent of Australians believed Australia should be doing more to attract Asian investment and only 13 percent believed Australia should increase its intake of migrants from Asia.

"We are not the only country having difficulty getting our head around the idea of the Asian Century and the fact that China is now one of the world's two great powers," Smith said.

"However, given the massive economic dependency Australia has on China, it's clear that a more sustained effort has to be put into framing that relationship."

Smith said the Australian government needed to develop a clear policy framework for relationships in Asia to manage China's rise and the "Asian Century".

"And without that framework, I also believe that the pace of progress is going tho be limited by public sentiment as much as anything else," Smith said.