Sydney (VNA) – National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue onDecember 2 met Governor of Victoria state Linda Dessau and received Tim Ayres, AssistantMinister for Trade and Assistant Minister for Manufacturing, within theframework of his official visit to Australia.

Linda Dessau said that her state always attaches importanceto its relations with Vietnam, reflected through the opening of a trade andinvestment office in the Southeast Asian country in 2021, and the signing of a Memorandumof Understanding on trade, investment, education - training, science andtechnology and food processing with Ho Chi Minh City this year.

As Victoria state has strengths in education-training, agriculturaleconomic development, manufacturing, mining, finance, health and sports, it hopes Vietnam will continue creating favourable conditions for it toexpand cooperation with Vietnamese localities in these fields and otherpotential ones.

She also appreciated the contributions by theVietnamese community in her state.

Hue, in turn, thanked and asked the state to continuesupporting and creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community tohave a stable life and maintain their contributions to the host country and thebilateral relations.

He appreciated the signing of the MoU between the two majoreconomic centres of the two countries: Ho Chi Minh City and Victoria, consideringit as a model in cooperation between their localities in the future. He said hehopes the two sides will expand collaboration in other areas such as urbanplanning and climate change response.

The top legislator also stated he welcomes Victoria leadersto visit Vietnam as well as its investors to Vietnam to explore investmentopportunities.

Receiving Assistant Minister for Trade and AssistantMinister for Manufacturing Tim Ayres, NA Chairman Hue showed his delight at the strong development of the bilateral relations in all fields. Two-waytrade for the first time exceeded the 10-billion-USD mark to 12.4 billion USDin 2022, and hit 13.4 billion USD in the first 10 months of this year, up 33%year-on-year.

However, he noted that the economic, trade and investmentties are not commensurate with the two countries’ potential.

He expressed his hope that Tim Ayres, in his positions, willfurther promote the opening of the market for Vietnamese agricultural products,support Vietnam to develop hi-tech agriculture, and intensify cooperation in education-training,culture, tourism, climate change response, and cooperation in the Mekongsub-region.

The two sides agreed to strengthen collaboration inresponding to regional and international challenges, including climate changeand energy security./.