Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board and the country's treasurer have approved the sale of Tasmania-based infant formula maker Bellamy's Australia to China's Mengniu Dairy Company for 1.5 billion Australian dollars.

Bellamy's Australia has been looking to expand further into China and it needs certain regulatory approvals to be able to do this, said economics professor Richard Holden from the University of New South Wales. Things will now be much easier for the infant formula manufacturer, he explained.

Holden added that unlike other proposed sales of Australian companies to Chinese buyers, this one was easy to approve.

"From an economic viewpoint, it's pretty clear that this isn't a strategic asset, this isn't a 5G network, a major port or anything like that," he said. "Just in the economics, it is pretty straightforward."

Some people within Australian government have criticized the sale to Mengniu, which is part-owned by China's government. University of Sydney lecturer Stewart Jackson said that the move underscores the difficulty the Australian government sometimes faces when considering the sale of domestic companies to Chinese businesses.

Selling off Australian companies is "increasingly difficult" in public, Jackson said. "If this was done privately, behind closed doors, it is actually not so tricky," he added.

Australian government has blocked a number of Chinese investments over the last few years citing national security concerns. It blocked Huawei from supplying equipment for the country's 5G network. 

"I think part of what is going on here, and it makes perfect strategic and economic sense, is the government doesn't want to be saying no at every possible opportunity to China. This is a relatively easy 'yes'. This is a company that is worth about 1.5 billion Australian dollars. This is a company that has the fourth largest market share in the domestic market in Australia, so there are plenty of alternative products that people are already buying," said Holden.