Australia's Queensland renews sister relationship with China's Shanghai

SYDNEY, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Australia's state of Queensland renewed its sister state relationship with China's Shanghai Municipality, which is expected to further boost their exchanges and cooperation.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told Xinhua in a written response on Wednesday that the renewal agreement for the relationship, signed in late July, will be in effect from this year to 2025.

"Queensland has renewed an important Sister-State Agreement with Shanghai, cementing our strong and enduring bond with China," she said.

"Trade partnerships between China and Queensland have been developed over many decades, and we continue to invest in our relationship with China."

China is a significant trade partner with Queensland, with exports of more than 21 billion Australian dollars (about 13.7 billion U.S. dollars) over the year to May, according to the state.

Queensland's agricultural relationship with China was also strong in 2021-2022, with exports valued at 1.78 billion Australian dollars (about 1.16 billion U.S. dollars), a 37 percent increase from 2020-2021.

China is also the largest and most valuable international visitor market for Queensland and in the year ending March 2020, 397,000 Chinese visitors spent almost 1.3 billion Australian dollars (about 850 million U.S. dollars) in Queensland, according to the state.