Vietnam's fresh dragon fruit is sold at a market in the Sydney. (Photo: VNA)The PM left Hanoi onMarch 4 morning for the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit to commemorate the 50thanniversary of ASEAN-Australia dialogue relations, and official visits toAustralia and New Zealand from March 5 – 11.
Over the past years, trade between Vietnam and Australia hasgrown strongly thanks to free trade agreements (FTAs). The General Department of VietnamCustoms reported that the two-way trade stood at nearly 14 billion USD lastyear, with Vietnam’s exports reaching 5.2 billion USD.
With the figures, the two countries were the 10th biggest trade partners of each other in the year, according to the Asia-AfricaMarket Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
Notably, Australia supplied important materialsfor a number of Vietnam's industrial and energy sectors such as coal, accountingfor up to 45.77% of the Southeast Asian nation’s total import of the material, andores and minerals 44.78%.
In the first month of this year, the bilateraltrade was valued at 1.25 billion USD, up 43.4% year-on-year, said Nguyen PhuHoa, head of the Vietnamese Trade Office in Australia.
Vietnam’s major exports included phone productsand components, machinery, electronic components, computers, crude oil, garment-textiles,footwear and aquatic products.
Meanwhile, it mainlyimported coal, ores, cotton, wheat, metal and vegetables from Australia.
Hoa attributed the result to the twogovernments’ attention to the economic-trade ties, considering them a crucialpillar in the bilateral relations, and the most important in the Plan of Actionfor the Strategic Partnership for 2020–2023.
The ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free TradeAgreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),to which both are signatories, have also played a role in the growing economicand trade ties.
Furthermore, for the first time, thetwo countries have agreed on and released a plan to implement the Enhanced EconomicEngagement Strategy (EEES) announced by their Prime Ministers in November 2021 withspecific measures until 2025.
There is firm ground for Vietnam to be optimistic about the prospects for economicand trade cooperation with Australia as the two economies are reciprocal, Hoaaffirmed.
According to Nguyen Dinh Tung, GeneralDirector of Vina T&T Group, his company and GAP Cu Lao GiangCooperative shipped 6 tonnes of mango from the Mekong Deltaprovince of An Giang to Australia in January.
Nguyen Nam Phuong Thao, Deputy Director of Hoang Phat FruitCo., Ltd, said apart from traditional markets like China, her company hasexported fresh fruits to others, including Australia and New Zealand.
The MoIT’s Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (VIETRADE) said it hassent a delegation to Australia from March 1-9, which is engaging in a widerange of trade and investment promotion activities in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
The Vietnamese Trade Office pledged to help businesses maximise advantages generated by the above-said FTAs, and advisedVietnamese firms to study carefully the market, local law and Australians’taste, and pay more attention to packaging and product quality./.
VNA
