HCMC Secretary: HCMC and Australia have potential for further cooperation

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen (R) shakes hands with Australian Governor-General David Hurley (Photo: SGGP)

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen made the statement at yesterday’s meeting to receive Australian Governor-General David Hurley and a high-ranking Australian delegation during the Australian Governor-General’s visit to the southern metropolis.

At the meeting, Nguyen Van Nen welcomed the Governor-General of Australia to visit Vietnam. The Governor-General's visit is the first state visit by a foreign head of state to Vietnam in 2023 and the first state guest of President Vo Van Thuong, contributing to creating a new impetus for the two countries’ bilateral relationship.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nen expressed his pleasure at the strong development of relations between the two countries in many fields which not only brings benefits to residents in the two countries but also makes an important contribution to the Asia-Pacific region’s peace and prosperity.

Australia was the first developed country to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam after the 1973 Paris Agreement was signed; moreover, many important infrastructure projects of Vietnam such as the North-South 500KV transmission line, the 2 bridges of My Thuan and Cao Lanh are marked by great support from Australia.

Vietnam generally and HCMC particularly value Australia's recently valuable support for Vietnam in the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic.

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen and Governor General of Australia David Hurley and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen visit the Reunification Hall (Photo: SGGP)

According to Secretary Nguyen Van Nen, Ho Chi Minh City has close relations with many localities in Australia. Two-way trade between Ho Chi Minh City and Australia in 2022 will reach more than US$1.4 billion. Australian enterprises currently have 274 projects in Ho Chi Minh City with a total capital of over $200 million ranking nineteenth out of 117 countries and territories which have registered investment capital in the southern largest city. One of the typical projects with important contributions to the human resource development of Ho Chi Minh City is RMIT University.

Ho Chi Minh City has so far signed a Memorandum of Understanding with four states including Queensland (in 2005), the territory of Northern Australia (2014), New South Wales (in 2019) and Victoria (in 2022). Furthermore, the Trade and Investment Representative Offices of 3 states New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are located in Ho Chi Minh City. With such mechanisms to promote trade and investment, Mr. Nguyen Van Nen believed that economic relations between the two sides will continue to prosper.

He emphasized that Ho Chi Minh City and Australian localities still have a lot of potential for cooperation in developing high-quality human resources, digital economy, innovation, finance, energy transformation, response to climate change, and logistics. City administrations are delighted to facilitate Australian delegations to Ho Chi Minh City to find opportunities for trade and investment cooperation. The city also planned to send delegations to Australian localities to organize trade and investment connection events this year.

Governor-General of Australia David Hurley sincerely thanked the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City for taking the time to receive the delegation. He informed Mr. Nguyen Van Nen of the results of the talks and meetings with Vietnamese leaders. In the meetings with Vietnamese leaders, the leaders of the two countries discussed orientations and specific measures to promote bilateral relations and cooperation in the fields of agriculture, industry, mining, and expanding cooperation in the fields of agriculture, industry and mining, green economy, digital economy, response to climate change.

Appreciating the potential of Ho Chi Minh City, Governor-General David Hurley affirmed that the development process of Ho Chi Minh City is a good opportunity to further promote cooperation between Australia and Ho Chi Minh City. Australia is ready to cooperate, support and share experiences with Ho Chi Minh City to solve new issues in the development process, contributing to further promoting the growing Australia-Vietnam cooperation relationship, and bringing about practical benefits for both countries.