China's rapidly growing economy and demand for services is making it an ideal destination for Australian professionals looking to grow their career opportunities.

The desired skillsets in China reach beyond those of the mining sector though, with demand growing for candidates in urban planning, agribusiness and even the green sector.

The prospects for skilled Australians will increase over the next 15 to 20 years as China becomes the most powerful consumer economy on the globe, news.com.au reported.

By 2020, figures indicate there will be 93 Chinese cities with populations of more than five million or more. By the same date, there are expected to be more middle class consumers in Asia than the rest of the world combined, and the majority of them will be in China.

Chinese people are moving from the country to the city at a rate of about 14 million people a year, and it is calculated some 50,000 additional skyscrapers will be needed by 2025. This warrants a huge construction program, which the Chinese want conducted on principles of efficient energy use and sustained liveability for residents. The result will be growing opportunities for Australian architecture and design companies to aid Chinese developers in creating energy and water-efficient buildings.

Other growth sectors include agribusiness, financial services, engineering, mining services and even environmental services. China is currently ranked 121st internationally in terms of climate change, air pollution and water access. They're now looking to spend more to repair environmental damage caused by its initial rush of economic growth and plan for the future. This will create employment for professionals like hydrologists, environmental planners and environmental scientists. Jason Johnson, the vice chairman of the AESC Council for Asia Pacific and managing partner at executive search firm, Johnson, told Human Capital that Australians recognise these opportunities as ways of improving career prospects.

"If anyone has spent time in China or India in high growth segments and they come back to Australia, that experience will be incredibly valuable," he said. "Most Aussies coming out of university will embark on an international trip and we've got a very high rate of that, I think only the Kiwis are higher. As people progress to more senior exec roles, those markets are materially different to Australia, so the scale and experience of working in some of those large markets is one of the things that attracts people offshore."

He said that HR professionals are no exception: "For the most strategic HR executive, and those that find themselves in those very exciting roles where they help to look at the growth strategies for Australian organisations, those growth strategies will typically involve some of those emerging markets."

"So if they've had experience and they understand the cultural differences and some of the operational challenges of doing business in those markets, that would be a huge advantage and would improve their employability."