Hanoi (VNA) –🔜 Vietnam and Australia aim to double the scale of two-way investment and become each other’s top 10 trading partners in the future, said Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell.

Addressing the third Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Meeting in Hanoi on April 17, Farrell stressed that the strategy to strengthen Vietnam-Australia economic cooperation with the goal of promoting Australia's trade and investment is ambitious. The two countries can expand cooperation in education-training, development cooperation, tourism, and agriculture besides economic ties, he said. Australia is one of the largest providers of non-refundable official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam. Statistics announced by the Australian Embassy showed that in the 2022-2023 period, Australia has increased ODA to Vietnam by 18% from 78.9 million AUD (52.98 million USD) to 92.8 million AUD (62.32 million USD). The provision of ODA focuses on areas of renovation, skilled worker training, women empowerment, and COVID-19 response. Addressing the event, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said after 50 years of establishing diplomatic ties, Vietnam and Australia have become important economic partners of each other in many areas from trade, investment, development cooperation, agriculture, education and training. As of March this year, Australia had 593 valid projects in Vietnam worth nearly 2 billion USD, ranking 20th out of 143 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation. Meanwhile, Vietnamese businesses have so far poured 500 million USD into Australia, Dung said. Last year, two-way trade rose 26.9% to 15.7 billion USD, including Vietnam’s exports of 5.6 billion USD, making Australia the seventh biggest trade partner of Vietnam.   Vietnam’s main exports to Australia are machinery, equipment, footwear, textiles, aquatic products, and steel. Meanwhile, Australia is an important supplier of raw materials for Vietnam, including coal, cotton, wheat, and ores. Regarding education cooperation, Vietnam currently ranks fifth among countries sending students to Australia with more than 22,000 students as of December 2022. During the meeting, the two sides discussed and proposed measures to further step up the bilateral economic ties, and considered the results of meetings on ODA and FDI between working groups to discuss multilateral economic cooperation. Participants also examined cooperation between the two countries at multilateral and regional forums such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), World Trade Organisation (WTO), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The meeting took place in the context that the two countries are celebrating the 50th founding anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations (1973 - 2023). During the visit to Vietnam by Governor-General of Australia David Hurley in April, the two sides agreed to discuss upgrading the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership at an appropriate time. The 4th Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Meeting will be held in Australia in a convenient time./.