Economies Need Mix of Cooperation to Continue to Grow Trade and Investment

Vietnam’s bilateral relationship with Australia is regarded as politically, strategically and economically important, and it has been steadily strengthening. The accomplishment of the 2010-2013 Plan of Action demonstrates the determination of the Leaders and the aspiration of the people of our two countries for a brighter future in Vietnam-Australia Comprehensive Partnership. Our reporter has an interview with Mr Craig Chittick, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam. Thu Ha reports.

How do you evaluate the recent cooperation between Vietnam and Australia within the framework of APEC cooperation?
Australia and Vietnam have worked together on APEC initiatives since Vietnam joined the forum in 1998. From our consecutive host years in 2006 and 2007, to our cooperation on Vietnam’s major initiatives for its 2017 hosting, Australia and Vietnam have built a strong partnership within APEC that complements our growing bilateral relationship.

As a champion of APEC and a trusted partner of Vietnam’s, Australia has been cooperating closely with Vietnam to support its APEC host year. Australia has seconded an experienced staff member to support the Vietnamese National APEC Secretariat and an experienced Vietnamese consultant to support VCCI with its preparations for ABAC and the CEO Forum. Australia has also signed an agreement with MOLISA to support its chairing of the 2017 Women and Economy Forum (WEF) in September. Finally, Australia is providing English language training for officials and leaders in Da Nang to support Vietnam’s hosting of APEC.

Outside the framework of APEC, what areas are Vietnam and Australia focused on promoting?
Australia’s broader engagement in Vietnam is closely aligned with Vietnam’s APEC priorities. We are supporting inclusive growth through focusing on creating more opportunities for women and ethnic minorities. We are promoting structural reform through supporting the Vietnamese Government to improve the business environment, increase the number of private enterprises, and boost productivity by improving the competition framework. We are also providing more targeted support to the Vietnamese private sector, and particularly Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises, by helping with the new SME law and partnering with the World Bank to look at how these enterprises can better integrate into global value chains. Australia is also contributing to regional connectivity by helping to improve the quality of Vietnam’s transport investments.

Australia’s Aus4Skills program is focused on human resource development in Vietnam. It provides Australia Awards Scholarships and Short Courses in priority sectors and promotes industry linkages in vocational education and training. Australia is also supporting food security and sustainable agriculture in Vietnam, with projects on climate change, food safety, food security, and accessing markets. We are also working to facilitate trade and improve market access for agricultural products and to encourage investment in Vietnam’s agriculture sector.

Last, but not least, Australia is supporting innovation in Vietnam and I see a strong ‘innovation partnership’ between our two countries across a number of areas emerging. The Australian Embassy in Hanoi now has an Innovation Champion to support the new program, ‘Aus4Innovation’, which will strengthen our partnership with Vietnam and help build the human resources that Vietnam needs to move up the value chain and take full advantage of the fourth Industrial Revolution.

Australian Ambassador HE Mr Craig Chittick grants the Certificate of Appreciation to Dr Doan Duy Khuong, one of the two Australia Global Alumni Ambassadors for Vietnam

What do you think about the role of APEC in forming Australia’s foreign policy?
APEC is vital to regional economic integration. At the highest level, it provides a forum for APEC leaders to meet annually, bringing together 21 economies that account for 58 per cent of global GDP and over 70 per cent of Australia’s international trade.

The original concept by former Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1989 was to pursue regional cooperation to improve the chances for progress in multilateral trade negotiations, to encourage greater openness about obstacles to trade in our region, and to identify broad economic interests that we have in common. This remains as relevant as ever.

APEC has been a key vehicle for encouraging unilateral reform, promoting open and transparent markets and deepening regional economic integration through capacity-building and regulatory cooperation. It has particular strengths in policy innovation, sharing reform experience and building the capability of developing economies in a wide range of areas.

This has delivered some positive outcomes for the business community, including reductions in tariffs and improvements in customs procedures, regulatory cooperation, logistics and infrastructure. It has also, for example, delivered visa-free travel and express lane transit at airports for over 190,000 business persons in the region through the APEC Business Travel Card.

What is Australia’s expectation in terms of boosting trade and investment cooperation with APEC economies, and Vietnam in particular, as part of APEC 2017?
Economies need a mix of bilateral, regional, and multilateral cooperation in order to continue to grow trade and investment, which are important drivers for economic growth. So Australia is supporting multi-year initiatives to boost trade and investment opportunities among all APEC economies over the longer term, complemented by some bilateral initiatives to deepen business engagement with Vietnam in 2017.

Under Vietnam’s leadership in 2017 we are seeing further implementation of major APEC work streams, including ongoing work on structural reform and building blocks that could contribute to the realisation of an eventual Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. We are also undertaking further capacity-building work to help developing economies implement the APEC Services Competitiveness Roadmap that leaders agreed last year in Lima. Australia has committed AUD 2 million to help with this work, with the longer term aims of supporting the evolution of a dynamic and efficient regional services market, lower barriers to trade and investment in services, a more competitive services sector across the region, and services making up a greater share of trade overall.

Australia also has several bilateral initiatives planned for the second half of 2017 that we hope will help boost trade and investment between Australia and Vietnam. In August, a trade & investment mission from the state of South Australia will visit Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang. In September, the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, AusCham, together with the Vietnamese Government, will organise ‘Meet Australia’ – a trade and investment conference to connect Australian and Vietnamese provincial businesses. Lastly, Australia hopes to bring a large number of high profile and influential CEOs to participate in the CEO Summit in Da Nang in November.