At the meeting (Photo: Ministry of Industry and Trade)_
Hanoi (VNA) – A trade working group within theframework of the Ministerial-level Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Meetingconvened an online meeting on October 27.
The two sides reviewed the implementation ofcontents reached in last year's meeting, discussed bilateral and multilateral tradeissues and those at regional and global forums, measures to tackle tradedifficulties and the progress of building the Vietnam-Australia economiccooperation enhancement strategy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Vietnamese side suggested Australia offermore active assistance in opening the market for Vietnamese agro-forestry-fisheryproducts to reach more balanced and sustainable trade, boost collaboration in tradedefence, competition management, industry and energy, e-commerce, trade andinvestment promotion, technical support in the implementation of free tradeagreements to which both countries are members.
Vietnam proposed Australia raise the awareness of its associations,businesses and localities about bilateral trade promotion activities.
The Australian side spoke highly of Vietnam’s role in its trade and suggested boosting cooperation in the fields of education-training, mining and tourism.
Vietnam expressed wish to work more closely with Australia tolaunch priority cooperation in education-training and planning of universities and exchange ofstudents and lecturers.
The Southeast Asian nation also proposed soon completing the signingof a Protocol amending the aviation agreement signed by the two Governmentsin 1995, thus creating favourable conditions for the two nations’ airlines to operate direct flights.
On multilateral issues, the two sides reviewed cooperationwithin regional and global frameworks, including the serious delivery ofcommitments in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP).
They also suggested ways to deal with commonissues related to origin certification in the CPTPP, expressed their determination tosoon sign the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) this year, and sharedopinions on reforms in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Both sides pledged to continue working closely together torealise the Vietnam-Australia economiccooperation enhancement strategy and reporting trade coordination contents tothe Ministerial-level Vietnam-Australia Economic Partnership Meetingscheduled for late 2020 and early 2021.
Trade between Vietnam and Australia grew by 8.2 percent onaverage during the 2010-2019 period, amounting to over 7.9 billion USD in 2019,up 3 percent annually.
In the first nine months of this year, the figure went up 2.3 percentannually to over 6.1 billion USD./.
