HCM City pushes for realisation of agreements with Australian state

HCM City (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Duong Anh Duc on January 11 hosted visiting Treasurer of the Australian state of Victoria Tim Pallas, during which they exchanged directions for the promotion of cooperation between two localities.

Given robustly growing Vietnam-Australia ties, Duc said the city has set up friendship and collaboration ties with many Australian localities, including Victoria in May last year.

Noting that the southern Vietnamese economic hub's future growth orientations will create more cooperation opportunities with the Australian side, the official suggested HCM City and Victoria complete their plan of actions for joint works with a focus on the fields of  investment development, logistics, biotechnology, health care, education, human resources quality improvement, and two-way trade promotion.

Duc expressed his wish to strengthen the sides’ cooperation, exchange and learn from Victoria's experience in digital transformation, climate change response, start-ups and innovation, and the improvement of staff quality in economic development and public administration.

The two localities should jointly study and select practical and effective contents for 2023 serving the actualisation of their collaboration towards specific goals and mutual benefits, he recommended.

For his part, Pallas, who is also Minister for Industrial Relations and for Trade and Investment of the state, informed the host that his visit to the city – the first on his position as the treasurer and minister – aims to open the Victorian trade and investment representative office here and promote the practical implementation of agreements signed between the sides.

Victoria can learn a lot from Vietnam's economic growth achievements and is willing to exchange and share experiences for Vietnam and HCM City in areas of its strength, the official affirmed.

Pallas added that his state is among main sponsors of a dialogue programme between leaders of Australia and Vietnam, with the first edition gathering ten Vietnamese and Australian representatives and scheduled for the near future in HCM City. The programme will then be held in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria./.