In Australia, the Northern Territory's Darwin Innovation Hub is taking an active role in sharing the benefits of China's Belt and Road Initiative, said Harley Paroulakis, the hub's founder and chief executive.

"We would like to attract one Chinese innovation company to a Northern Territory industry sector in the next 12 months. We are planning to visit China and work with Austrade to find a suitable Chinese innovation company," Paroulakis said.

Austrade is the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, which helps companies connect to overseas markets, among other duties.

Paroulakis and his team members have had preliminary meetings with groups like the Shandong Investment Group venture capital team and Nanjing Development Zone.

To establish the right networks in China to find the right and most relevant Chinese company for the Northern Territory is the most challenging part of this project, which takes time, Paroulakis said.

However, China's Belt and Road Initiative gives him great confidence and a lot of assistance to build an Asia-Pacific ecosystem linking Darwin and Northern Territory industry to the region, especially with China.

The Belt and Road Initiative can certainly help build confidence and direction in our deal flow between China and North Australia and help the innovation hub work with the right business in China, Paroulakis said.

Meanwhile, the innovation hub also will back a Northern Territory innovation company to set up in China by developing partnerships with Chinese companies in the innovation and investment sectors, potentially via a parallel venture capital funding agreement that focuses on Belt and Road innovation investments between China and Australia, according to Paroulakis.

"We plan to visit China and meet with companies with technologies in solar, agricultural tech, mining tech and other industries relevant to the Northern Territory. We want to attract one company in the next 12 months to China and one to Australia consistent with the BRI," Paroulakis said.