The 4th Vietnam - Australia Economic Partnership Ministerial Meeting

The 4th Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Ministerial Meeting was held in Adelaide, Australia on October 17, 2024, co-chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung and Australian Minister of Trade and Tourism Don Farrell. The meeting was attended by representatives of relevant agencies of the two countries.

Vietnam-Australia economic cooperation continues to develop strongly. With the upgrade to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in March 2024, Vietnam and Australia are leading economic partners in many areas, from trade, investment, development cooperation, agriculture, education and training, etc.

Regarding development cooperation (ODA), Australia is one of the donors with large non-refundable ODA support for Vietnam. According to the announcement of the Australian Embassy, ​​in the period of 2023 - 2024, Australia will provide 95 million AUD for Vietnam, focusing on the following areas: (i) Economic growth; (ii) Development of highly skilled human resources; (iii) Energy and climate; (iv) Gender equality.

Regarding foreign direct investment (FDI), as of August 2024, Australian investors had 660 valid projects with a total registered capital of 2.05 billion USD, ranking 21st out of 149 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, focusing on the fields of processing and manufacturing industry, accommodation and catering services, and agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

In terms of trade, in the first 9 months of 2024, Vietnam's total import-export turnover with Australia reached 10.8 billion USD, up 5.6% over the same period in 2023. Of which, Vietnam's export turnover to Australia reached 5 billion USD, up 30.3% over the same period in 2023; Import turnover from Australia reached 5.8 billion USD, down 9.3% over the same period in 2023. Vietnam's trade deficit with Australia was worth 777 million USD, down 69.5% over the same period in 2023.

Vietnam's exports to Australia focus on a number of items such as machinery, equipment, footwear, textiles, seafood, iron and steel of all kinds... On the other hand, Australia is an important market supplying raw materials and fuels for domestic production such as coal of all kinds, cotton of all kinds, ores and other minerals, and wheat.

Regarding education and training, according to statistics from the Australian Department of Education, Vietnam is currently the 5th country with international students studying in this country. As of August 31, 2024, there were 36,221 Vietnamese students studying and researching at Australian educational institutions.

At the 4th Ministerial Conference, the two sides discussed measures to strongly promote Vietnam - Australia economic relations, and assessed the implementation of the Strategy for enhancing economic cooperation and the results of the meetings of the Working Groups on ODA, FDI and Trade; listened to reports on the implementation of the pioneering enterprise initiative to promote the business environment. In addition, the two sides discussed cooperation between the two countries in multilateral and regional forums/mechanisms such as ASEAN, APEC, WTO, RCEP, CPTPP, AANZFTA, IPEF.

The fourth Vietnam - Australia Economic Partnership Ministerial Meeting was a great success, opening up new development directions for Vietnam - Australia economic relations.

The fifth Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Ministerial Meeting will be held in Vietnam at an appropriate time for the two sides to review the progress of the implementation of the Vietnam-Australia Economic Connectivity Strategy, the results of the implementation of agreements at the fourth Ministerial Meeting, and propose new initiatives and cooperation agreements.

On the morning of October 18, within the framework of the working trip to attend the 4th Vietnam - Australia Economic Partnership Ministerial Meeting and investment promotion activities between the two countries, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung had a working session with the Government of Victoria, Australia. At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung and partners representing the Victorian government discussed promoting investment between Vietnam and Victoria, and cooperation in developing an innovation ecosystem and high-quality human resources in the field of technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors.

The Minister emphasized that Vietnam wishes to promote bilateral investment between the two sides, focusing on potential technology sectors such as green economy, digital economy, education, digital transformation, circular economy, high-tech agriculture, renewable energy, and new energy. The Vietnamese Government is committed to creating the most favorable conditions for businesses and organizations of the State of Victoria to invest and cooperate in Vietnam.

On the Victorian side, Mr. Paul Hammer - Head of the Parliamentary Economics Committee - highly appreciated Vietnam's socio-economic progress, as well as its great potential for high-quality human resources. Victoria has particular strengths in the education sector, with world-leading universities such as the University of Melbourne and Monash University, which currently account for 55% of Vietnamese students studying in Australia. Victoria wishes to continue strengthening economic cooperation with Vietnam, and is committed to supporting Vietnam in developing its semiconductor and AI industrial ecosystem.

On the same day, October 18, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung also had working sessions with the University of Melbourne and Monash University. Here, the Minister highly appreciated these two schools as world-leading institutions in the fields of innovation and high technology, and proposed cooperation in training, incubation and human resource development for the AI ​​and semiconductor fields of Vietnam. The working session also opened up new opportunities for cooperation between the Melbourne Connect Innovation Center of the University of Melbourne and the National Innovation Center (NIC) of Vietnam in innovation activities as well as Melbourne Connect cooperation programs to enhance NIC's innovation capacity as well as consulting, training, incubation and exchanging startups with NIC.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/hoi-nghi-bo-truong-doi-tac-kinh-te-viet-nam-australia-lan-thu-tu-156898.html