Australia's former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said his country should be thankful to China's economic growth because "the growth of China has been a significant part of our economic growth for a considerable period of time now."

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua recently in Sydney, Hawke said that particularly in the last 12 months, Australia escaped the hard hit of global financial and economic crisis thanks to China's economic development.

"It's our trade with China which has brought about the situation where Australia was the only OECD country which hasn't gone recession and we thank China for that," said Hawke, who served as Australia's Prime Minister from 1983 to 1991 and was still active in social activities.

"So we shouldn't been worried about what's happening in China and I've been proud that China's economy will continue to grow," the 80-year-old veteran politician added.

Talking about the current bilateral relations, Hawke said there have been a few little hiccups in the past few months at the political and investment level which he believed was recoverable because basically Chinese-Australian ties "are very sound and it’s reflected in the growing volume of trade and investment between our countries."

Fortunately, "the condition I think is good for them because the fundamentals of the relationship are strong," he said, adding that to warm up the relations, however, "requires some sound thinking by governments, business people and so on."

When asked about his impression on Chinese development over the past few decades, the former prime minister, who has visited China many times, said what impressed him most was the dedication of the Chinese government to increasingly make better the structure of Chinese bureaucracy and society.

"What instructed me was how the Communist Party of China's structure and the society increasingly responded positively to the economic reform and opening up to the outside world, which was designed by the party leader Deng Xiaoping," he said.

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hawke expressed his congratulations to China on magnificent achievements it has made since 1978.

"I also believe that in the years ahead the Chinese government will continue to provide an even broader and deeper inspiration on their own people and the rest of the world," Hawke said.

Source:Xinhua