Vietnam and Australia strive to make breakthroughs in economic cooperation

Reports presented at the meeting show bilateral economic cooperation has been maintained and yielded positive results in recent times. Following the upgrade to a strategic partnership in March 2018, Vietnam and Australia are leading economic partners in many fields, from trade and investment, to development cooperation, agriculture, and education – training.

Australia is one of the major non-refundable ODA donors for Vietnam. It has decided to increase its ODA for Vietnam from AUD78.9 million to AUD92.8 million in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

As of March 2023, Australia had 593 valid projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of US$1.99 billion, ranking 20th out of 143 countries and territories investing in the country. Its investment was focused on the fields of processing, manufacturing, accommodation and catering services, agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

Vietnam poured US$500 million into Australia, ranking 11th out of 79 countries and territories investing in the country.

Meanwhile, by the end of 2022, two-way trade between the two countries reached US$15.7 billion, up 26.9% compared to 2021, making Australia become Vietnam’s seventh largest trading partner.

As of December 2022, there were more than 22,000 Vietnamese students studying at Australian educational institutions, ranking fifth among foreign student communities in Australia.

Addressing the meeting held in Hanoi, Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung noted there will be much room for the two business communities to expand their cooperation as both countries are preparing to lift their relations to a strategic comprehensive partnership in the near future.

“Discussions at the meeting are expected to help create breakthroughs in economic cooperation, contributing to fostering comprehensive cooperation between the two countries moving forward,” said Dung.

For his part, Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell said Vietnam and Australia would double the size of two-way investment compared to the current one, and the two countries would become each other’s top 10 trading partners.

He also described the 2021 Australia - Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy aiming to promote bilateral investment and trade cooperation as ambitious, as fields of cooperation have been expanded into other fields, such as education-training, development cooperation, tourism, and agriculture.

At the meeting, the two sides put forward solutions to strongly promote Vietnam-Australia economic relations, and at the same time evaluated the implementation of the 2021 Australia - Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy. They listened to opinions and recommendations by pioneering enterprises in Vietnam and Australia to promote the business environment.

They also examined cooperation between the two countries at multilateral and regional forums, such as ASEAN, APEC, WTO, as well as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF).

The two sides agreed to convene the fourth meeting in Australia at an appropriate time.