Australia prioritizes cooperation with Viet Nam
VGP - The Australian Government and business community highly appreciated the "quality" of the relationship with Viet Nam, said Nicholas Moore, special envoy for Southeast Asia of the Australian Government.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang (R) shakes hands with Nicholas Moore, special envoy for Southeast Asia of the Australian Government, Ha Noi, May 17, 2023 - Photo: VGP/Hai Minh
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang hosted a reception for the special envoy for Southeast Asia of the Australian Government in Ha Noi on May 17.
The host leader assessed that the bilateral ties have been growing fruitfully, with the two-way trade reaching US$15.7 billion in 2022, up 26.7 percent on-year, thereby making Australia the seventh largest trading partner of Viet Nam which, in return, represents Australia's 10th largest trading partner.
Australia has 590 active projects in Viet Nam with a total investment of nearly US$2 billion, ranking 20th out of 141 countries and territories investing in the Vietnamese market. Meanwhile, Viet Nam has 88 investment projects in Australia with a total capital of more than US$590 million, mainly in the fields of agriculture, forestry, wholesale and retail, processing and manufacturing.
Tran affirmed that the Vietnamese Government always listens to and accompanies investors in removing difficulties and building an increasingly favorable business investment environment.
The host leader proposed that the Australian Government give Viet Nam a worthy position in the Southeast Asian Economic Strategy to 2040 which enable ties between the two countries to develop better and bring practical benefits to the two peoples, for peace, stability, and prosperous development in the region and the world as a whole.
He suggested Australia support and share its experience with the Vietnamese side in such areas as renewable energy, digital transformation, green transformation, and climate change response, which is a common development trend taking place around the world.
In reply, the special envoy said that Australia stands ready to share experience and co-operate with Viet Nam in those fields, reasoning both countries have a variety of problems to solve during their development paths.
Viet Nam and Australia set up diplomatic relations on February 26, 1973, before moving to upgrade their relationship to a comprehensive partnership in 2009, an enhanced comprehensive partnership in 2015, and a strategic partnership in 2018./.
