Deputy Minister Phan Thi Thang received the Minister of Industry and Trade of New South Wales, Australia

Attending the meeting were representatives from the Asia-Africa Market Department, the Import-Export Department, the Trade Promotion Department, the Industry Department, the Oil, Gas and Coal Department. On the Australian side, there was the participation of the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, representatives of the economic department and representatives of the Office of the Minister of Industry and Trade of New South Wales.

At the meeting, Deputy Minister Phan Thi Thang highly appreciated the sustainable and comprehensive relationship between Vietnam and Australia, marked by the two sides officially upgrading their relationship to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh 's visit to Australia last March. The Deputy Minister affirmed that Australia is an important and comprehensive partner in which trade, industry and energy are considered pillar cooperation. In this relationship, New South Wales plays a prominent role, being the State with the largest import-export turnover among the Australian states and territories with Vietnam, accounting for about 16% of the total import-export turnover of the two countries.

Minister Anoulack Chanthivong shared that ASEAN, including Vietnam, was the first partner he chose for his overseas trip as Minister for Industry and Trade of New South Wales. The Minister expressed his impression of the strong development of the Vietnamese economy, especially after the Doi Moi period. As a settlement of thousands of overseas Vietnamese, the Minister believes in the cooperation and connection between New South Wales and Vietnam in many fields such as trade, minerals, agriculture , science and technology, finance, education and training... to develop together for the goal of common prosperity.

In response to the content mentioned by Mr. Chanthivong, Deputy Minister Phan Thi Thang reviewed the vibrant cooperation between New South Wales and Vietnam in the fields of agriculture, canned food, pharmaceuticals, functional foods, educational services, etc. Agriculture and food are typical examples when New South Wales is an important supplier to Vietnam of red meat products, raw meat (especially beef), fresh fruits (apples, cherries, etc.). Thereby, the Deputy Minister proposed many specific cooperation contents, such as asking New South Wales to share experiences and techniques in high-tech agriculture, building value chains for agricultural products, food and beverages in the regional and global supply chain, encouraging cooperation in the field of training with the system of universities and colleges under the Ministry, investing in Vietnam to produce raw materials for the pharmaceutical and functional food industries, etc.

At the meeting, representatives of functional units of the Ministry of Industry and Trade within their scope of responsibility directly requested Minister Chanthivong to promote cooperation between the State and Vietnam in trade promotion and facilitation activities; share information and mineral exploitation technology; exchange cooperation opportunities in the fields of coal and LNG; support businesses of both sides to take advantage of free trade agreements and cooperation in the field of logistics.

Minister Chinthavong highly appreciated the cooperation proposals of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and expressed his willingness to closely coordinate in realizing these proposals, especially in the State's strong areas such as minerals, LNG, renewable energy development, etc., thereby supporting Vietnam in achieving the "net zero" goal. On this occasion, Minister Chinthavong expressed his gratitude to the Government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam for extending the rice export license for a subsidiary of SunRice Group, Australia's number 1 food manufacturing and exporting enterprise.

At the end of the meeting, the Deputy Minister expressed his gratitude for the very active cooperation of the Australian Embassy and the New South Wales State Government in the cooperation activities between Australia and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam in the past time. The Deputy Minister hoped that, with the attention of the Minister, the trade - industry - energy cooperation relationship between New South Wales in particular, Australia in general and Vietnam will have more and more strong development marks, worthy of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two sides.

In the first 5 months of 2024, Vietnam's import-export turnover with Australia reached 5.7 billion USD, up 5.3% over the same period in 2023. Of which, Vietnam's export turnover to Australia reached 2.6 billion USD, up 31.1% over the same period in 2023, Vietnam's import turnover from Australia reached 3.1 billion USD, down 9.7% over the same period in 2023. Vietnam's trade deficit with Australia was worth 486.4 million USD, down 66.1% over the same period in 2023.

Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/hoat-dong/thu-truong-phan-thi-thang-tiep-bo-truong-cong-thuong-bang-new-south-wales-uc.html