Vietnam, Australia foster economic partnership

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung (R) and Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi-The third Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Meeting was held in Hanoi on April 17 under the co-chair of Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung and Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell.

Addressing the event, Dung said that the Vietnam-Australia economic cooperation has seen strong growth over the years. Since the two sides lifted up their ties to a strategic partnership in 2018, they have become partners in many areas from trade, investment, development investment, agriculture, education and training.

Australia is one of the largest providers of non-refundable official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam, he said, citing statistics announced by the Australian Embassy that in the 2022-2023 period, Australia has increase ODA to Vietnam by 18 per cent from 78.9 million AUD (52.98 million USD) to 92.8 million AUD (62.32 million USD), focusing on areas of renovation, skilled worker training, women empowerment, COVID-19 response, and encouraging the private sector’s engagement in socio-economic development.

As of March this year, Australia had 593 valid projects in Vietnam worth 1.99 billion USD, ranking 20th out of 143 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

Last year, two-way trade rose 26.9 per cent to 15.7 billion USD, including Vietnam’s exports of 5.6 billion USD, making Australia the seventh biggest trade partner of Vietnam.

Vietnam currently ranks fifth among countries sending students to Australia with more than 22,000 students as of December 2022.

According to Dung, the meeting will consider working groups in various areas to discuss multilateral economic cooperation, contributing to promoting the sustainable development of bilateral partnership.

He called for more investment from Australia and suggested that the Australian side coordinate with Vietnam to develop the bilateral relations in a more balance manner, and support Vietnam in trade promotion activities and introducing more products, especially agro-fisheries products in Australia.

The two sides should work closer in new cooperation areas such as innovation, green and renewable energy, circular and high-tech agriculture as well as culture and tourism, he said.

Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell addresses the meeting (Photo: VNA)

For his part, Farrell affirmed that cooperation between Australia and Vietnam has been fruitful in all fields, especially trade, investment, education and training. He said he believes that the meeting will open up new development orientations for the Vietnam-Australia partnership.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed measures to further foster the Vietnam-Australia economic ties, evaluate the implementation of the Vietnam-Australia Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy and the outcomes of working groups on ODA, foreign investment and trade, and listen to recommendations from businesses of both sides on measures to improve the business environment quality.

Participants also discussed cooperation between the two countries at multilateral and regional forums such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), World Trade Organisation (WTO), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).

The meeting took place in the context that the two countries are celebrating the 50th founding anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations (1973 - 2023). During the visit to Vietnam by Governor-General of Australia David Hurley in April, the two sides agreed to discuss upgrading the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership at an appropriate time.

Participants agreed to organise the fourth Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Meeting in Australia in a convenient time.

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