Australia-Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy launched

On December 21, the governments of Australia and Vietnam released a strategy to unlock significant opportunities for businesses across the two countries.

The Australia-Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy sets out a road map to increase trade and investment opportunities, forging closer ties between the two countries.

The Strategy is unique, the first of its kind for Vietnam and Australia and reflective of both countries’ mutual interests.

At a meeting in Hanoi with Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Tran Quoc Phuong, Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam, HE Robyn Mudie, said: ‘We are proud to have publicly released this strategy in partnership Vietnam. It is the strongest reflection yet of our confidence in our shared economic future. Through this strategy we can recover our economies and prosper together.”

“Our economies are highly complementary. Australia is a reliable supplier of the services and raw materials that Vietnam’s exporters require, and our consumers enjoy Vietnam’s high-quality products in their homes and workplaces. There is enormous potential to take this relationship even further as we emerge from COVID-19,” she added.

The Ambassador said that the Strategy would help guide the two countries towards an inclusive and sustainable growth path.

At the meeting, Vice Minister Phuong said: “The economic potential between Australia and Vietnam is great. This strategy will be central to realising this potential. It demonstrates our commitment to promote economic, trade and investment links across key sectors and will help support the post COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery.”

In their forewords to the Strategy, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison endorsed the Strategy as an important step in realizing the two countries’ mutual goal to become top ten trading partners and double two-way investment.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: “Together, Australia and Vietnam are achieving tremendous things. We share a strong, optimisticand future-focused agenda. This Strategy is a manifest recognition of what is possible when we work together. I am delighted to commend this Strategy to the government, business, investment and innovation communities of Australia and Vietnam, and all who will work together to advance its goals.”

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said: “Since the official establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 1973, the friendship and cooperative relations between Vietnam and Australia have developed strongly. The Australia-Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy shows the ambition and aspirations of our two countries’ governments and people.”

To support Australian and Vietnam businesses, the strategy outlines a series of mutually beneficial, practical initiatives to deepen trade and investment links in key sectors including across agriculture, education, energy, services and the digital economy.

The Strategy also highlights the importance of strengthening the rules-based global trading system as the basis for open international trade and working together to address economic challenges and coercive economic practices.