Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia Nguyen Tat Thanh speaks at the event. (Photo: VNA) Melbourne (VNA) –RMIT University, the Victoria State Office of the Department of Foreign Affairsand Trade (DFAT), the Asian Institute for Social Studies in Australia,and the Vietnam - Australia Policy Institute has organised a specialevent in Melbourne to look back on the past 50 years of Vietnam-Australiarelations and seek opportunities and development trends for theirrelationship in the way ahead.
Speaking atthe event, Senator Tim Ayres, Australia's Assistant Minister for Trade and Assistant Minister for Manufacturing, emphasised that Australia - Vietnam relations areincreasingly developing as the two countries have a lot in common,especially sharing their commitment to building a stable, peaceful, resilient,and prosperous world, especially in Southeast Asia, a toppriority of the Australian Government.
Tim affirmed that these common points pave the way for cooperation between the twocountries. The joint implementation of concrete and tangible actions will helpthe two countries seize cooperation opportunities in various fields, including economy, trade and education.
He said that350,000 Vietnamese Australians have contributing to creating a multicultural and modernAustralia.
VietnameseAmbassador to Australia Nguyen Tat Thanh said that many activities have been held in the past five decades, helping bring the twocountries' ties from friendship to partnership.
The ambassador affirmed that the bilateral relationship between Australia andVietnam has achieved great results in all socio-economic fields. Bilateral tradehas expanded 20% in the period 2018-2022,reaching a record of 23.5 billion AUD (15.73 billion USD) in 2022, makingAustralia the 7th largest trading partner of Vietnam. For the first time,Vietnam became Australia's 10th largest trading partner.
People-to-peopleexchanges have also been strengthened through thelarge number of Vietnamese Australians, who continue to play an important rolein promoting friendship and understanding between the people of the twocountries.
Australia hasalso emerged as one of the leading overseas education markets for Vietnamesestudents. Over the past 22 years, RMIT University - the first andlargest foreign-owned university in the Southeast Asian country - has continuedto support the Government of Vietnam with human resources improvement in order to help Vietnam become ahigh-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2045./.
