On December 23, 2021, a delegation of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) took an official visit to the Hai Phong City and paid a courtesy call to Hai Phong People’s Committee. At the meeting hosted by Vice Chairman of Hai Phong People’s Committee, leadership representatives of Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Planning and Investment, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Construction, and Office Head of the City People’s Committee attended and participated in communication with the Australian Embassy’s delegates about cooperation opportunities not only in economic field but also in other fields such as investment, education, health care, high tech industry, etc.
Mr. Hoang Minh Cuong, Vice Chairman, gave a speech at the meeting. Photo: Thien An.
On behalf of the Hai Phong People’s Committee, Mr. Hoang Minh Cuong, Vice Chairman, gave warm greetings to Mr. Shannon Leahy, Trade Commissioner, and all members of the delegation, and expressed honor to host the meeting with the delegation. The Vice Chairman shared to the delegation a brief introduction on the city’s achievements in eco- social performance in 2021. Indeed, despite increasing complication and impacts of the pandemic, the city has been making attempts to achieve the double targets, one is to prevent and control the COVID-19, and the other one is to realize its economic targets. Regarding foreign direct investment (FDI), in 2021, Hai Phong received 05 projects from Australian investors, with a capital of more than 152 million USD, focusing on manufacturing steel, billet, luxury residential accommodation business, maritime logistics. For trade exchange, in last 11 months of 2021, through-port export value to the Australian market reached 28.6 million USD, while through-port import value from the Australian market was 8.7 million USD. In terms of bilateral relation, Hai Phong People’s Committee and the Northern Territory Government of Australia signed in MoU on strengthening cooperation in terms of trade, economy, and education in February 2014, in order to enhance cooperation in cattle import and export, agriculture, fishing and aqua agriculture, processing aqua products, tourism advertisement and development, education and training, trade, and others grounded on the both sides’ potential and demand.
The Australian Embassy’s delegation took photo with Mr. Vice Chairman
and representatives of related departments. Photo: Thien An.
Giving a speech at the meeting, Mr. Shannon Leahy, Trade Commissioner of Austrade, expressed impression on current achievements of Hai Phong City in eco-social performance and engagement to make contributions to strengthen cooperation activities between the both sides. Also, Mr. Leahy underlined, in the framework of COP26, two Prime Ministers launched the Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy (EEES) to deepen trade and investment ties between Vietnam and Australia, and to reach their top 10 partnership trade and economy. Currently, Australia has been interested in investment in clean energy, renewable energy, bio energy, and other cooperative fields with Vietnam./.