Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Should shakes hands with Ms. Margaret Beazley, Governor of New South Wales (Australia), on the morning of May 23, 2023 – Photo: HUU HANH
New South Wales is Australia’s most populous state, located in the southeast of Kangaroo Country, the largest city being Sydney. Currently, around 10,000 Vietnamese students study here.
“I am very happy to join the delegation to visit Ho Chi Minh City. I shared with the delegation members about the warmth I feel in Ho Chi Minh City” – Ms. Margaret Beazley shared at the beginning of the meeting.
Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Nen and New South Wales Governor Margaret Beazley shared about the development journey of Vietnam-Australia relations, areas of cooperation and opportunities and potentials in the future .
“We are happy and proud with the development journey of the two countries. In terms of politics, economy, trade, investment, culture, education… in general, development is comprehensive, increasingly broad and effective. We have many numbers to report. prove this result,” said party secretary Nguyen Van Nen.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Australia (February 26, 1973 – February 26, 2023). According to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Australia is currently one of Vietnam’s seven largest trading partners, while Vietnam is Australia’s tenth largest trading partner.
Australia was the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam following the signing of the Paris Agreement on Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Nen and Ms. Margaret Beazley, Governor of New South Wales (Australia), exchanged their regards at the end of the morning meeting on May 23, 2023 – Photo: HUU HANH
Over the past 50 years, the relationship between Vietnam and Australia has always developed strongly and effectively in all fields. Regarding education, there are over 31,000 Vietnamese students studying in Australia.
The scale of bilateral trade in 2022 reached 15.7 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.9% compared to 2021.
Wherein, Vietnam’s merchandise export turnover to Australia reached 5.6 billion US dollars, an increase of 26.2%. In the opposite direction, the import turnover of goods from Australia to Vietnam reached US$10.1 billion, an increase of 27.3%.
Particularly in Ho Chi Minh City, Secretary Nguyen Van Nen said that Australia currently has 280 investment projects in Ho Chi Minh City with a total capital of over US$200 million.
Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee secretary said that Ho Chi Minh City and the states of Australia, including New South Wales, still have many potentials and opportunities for cooperation.
Mr. Should believes that practical cooperation programs between Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam’s economic powerhouse facing major challenges in terms of economic growth – and Australian localities will help Ho Chi Minh City overcome these challenges.
Among them are cooperation programs in the training of human resources, infrastructure development, logistics, etc.
New South Wales Governor Margaret Beazley highly appreciated the cooperation programs between Ho Chi Minh City and New South Wales, making an important contribution to strengthening relations between Vietnam and Australia. She also expressed her desire to further promote tourism cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and New South Wales.
At the end of the meeting, Secretary Nguyen Van Should wished Ms. Margaret Beazley a successful visit and work in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ho Chi Minh City hopes that the relationship with Australia will get better and better
