PERTH, Australia, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- China has made "rapid progress on the move to clean energy" and is "literally leading in the world" in the green transition, said the head of a leading transport and logistics company in Australia, urging the rest of the world to look East to strive for green development.
"I'm a big fan of China!" Christine Holgate, CEO of Team Global Express, told Xinhua with palpable enthusiasm in a recent interview in Perth, the capital of Western Australia. "I think their achievements are really important because people look up (to them) and want to see a real showcase model of it working."
"No one would have guessed 10 years or earlier and yet the transformation has been so fast," she added.
A frequent visitor to China with numerous business partners there, Holgate has long admired the country's commitment to green development.
Holgate revealed that, as one of Australia and New Zealand's most important delivery networks, Team Global Express is currently piloting a large-scale heavy electric fleet with help from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. She insists that Australia must look to China for proven strategies, and that the lessons go far beyond electric vehicles.
"The Chinese government made a very determined effort. They reduced taxes, they waived license plate fees, they actually invested heavily in infrastructure to adapt for electric charging. We've got some way to go in Australia," she said.
"Now (China's) new energy vehicles are coming in, which are being led with improved technology and scale production. Australia is able to benefit from the scale production of China. It enables us to actually speed up that adoption," she added.
Holgate shared what she has learned from two major transport companies in China about how they use artificial intelligence to do vehicle space planning and route planning.
"It's not just electrification. While we go through that process, we should be looking at to see how can we do things smarter and more efficiently," Holgate stressed.
Holgate also noted that Chinese companies are leading in the adoption of social media to understand consumers. "If we can bring those thoughts and processes closer into big, heavy infrastructure companies, it's going to lead to better outcomes for customers."
As a logistics industry veteran, Holgate is equally impressed by China's use of e-commerce to eliminate poverty and achieve balanced regional development.
She sees a direct parallel for Australia, where 28 percent of the population lives in regional areas and often pays higher prices for goods, saying this is "about having a sustainable future for our country."
"The emergence of cross-border e-commerce has enabled many Australians to benefit from a lower cost to many different products, and that is actually helping our moms and dads at a time when there's globally a cost of living pressure," she said.
Noting that Western markets had much to learn from China, Holgate expressed a strong belief that foreign observers needed to visit the country firsthand to listen, observe, and learn. ■