Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính addressses the Vietnam-Australia Business Forum in Melbourne on March 5. — VNA/VNS Photo

MELBOURNE — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính attended the Vietnam-Australia Business Forum in Melbourne on Tuesday morning (local time) as part of his ongoing trip to Australia to attend the ASEAN - Australia Special Summit and pay an official visit to Australia.

Addressing the event, which drew the participation of leaders from nearly 200 enterprises of Việt Nam and Australia, PM Chính revealed that during his official visit to Australia, the two countries are scheduled to announce the upgrade of bilateral relations.

The Government leader expressed his expectations on five “better things” after the upgrade of the relations – better political trust, better economic, trade and investment cooperation, better science-technology and innovation collaboration, better partnership in education, training, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and better cooperation in tourism and labour.

PM Chính briefed participants on major policies and development achievements of Vietnam over the past years, and underlined that economic, trade and investment collaboration has been an important pillar in the bilateral relationship.

Statistics showed that Việt Nam is now home to 630 Australian-funded projects with combined registered capital of US$2.03 billion, making Australia the 20th largest among 145 countries and territories investing in Việt Nam. Meanwhile, Việt Nam has also invested in 90 projects worth over $550 million in Australia.

In 2023, two-way trade reached about $14 billion, turning Việt Nam and Australia into each other’s top 10 largest trading partners.

However, PM Chính held that the cooperation results remained modest compared to the potential and space for cooperation between the two countries.

Therefore, he called on businesses, associations and investors of the two countries to further promote their collaboration and pledged that the two governments will continue to create favourable conditions for their cooperation.

The Vietnamese Government will continue to promote three strategic breakthroughs in terms of institutions, infrastructure and human resources, simplify administrative procedures and cut costs for investors, he said, proposing the Australian side to assist Việt Nam in these fields.

PM Chính suggested that the two sides optimise traditional growth motivations of investment, export and consumption, and promote new driving forces such as digital transformation, green transition, circular economy, knowledge-based economy and sharing economy on the foundation of innovation, science and technology. The two countries should also boost tourism and education cooperation as well as people-to-people exchanges, he added.

The PM took this occasion to thank the Australian side for backing the Vietnamese community in settling down in the host country, and providing COVID-19 vaccines to Việt Nam during the hardest time of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính attends the announcement of the opening of an air route linking Melbourne and Hà Nội by Vietjet Air. — VNA/VNS Photo

At the forum, PM Chính witnessed the announcement of the opening of an air route linking Melbourne and Hà Nội by Vietjet Air. First flights on the route are scheduled to operate on June 3 with two return flights per week.

Vietjet is currently operating 58 flights per week between HCM City of Việt Nam and the five largest cities of Australia - Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Within the forum’s framework, agencies and businesses of the two nations also exchanged many memoranda of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in various fields, including aviation, education and training, offshore wind power development, and high-tech agriculture.

Earlier the same day, PM Chính cut the ribbon to inaugurate the Australia - Vietnam Policy Institute at RMIT University, which aims to conduct researches on the strategic relations between Australia and Việt Nam, contributing to effectively implementing Australia'a Southeast Asian Economic Strategy to 2040.

PM Chính expressed his belief that the institute’s activities in providing policy consultancy to the two governments will help deepen the bilateral relationship, making it more practical and effective across all fields for the growth of each country and people of both nations, and for peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

According to RMIT President Prof. Alec Cameron, through nearly 25 years of operations in Vietnam, the university has trained 20,000 Vietnamese students.

PM Chính proposed that RMIT invest more in enhancing the quality of its infrastructure and making long-term investment in Việt Nam, thus contributing to promoting education-training cooperation between the two countries. — VNA/VNS