Minister for Trade and Industry of New South Wales Niall Blair said the Australian state wants to step up cooperation with Vietnam in energy, minerals (coal), gas, food and agriculture during his meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh. 

 

Their meeting took place in Sydney on March 16 (local time) within Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s trip to Australia to attend the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit. 

 

For his part, Minister Anh highly values potential of the Australian market, especially New South Wales, as well as prospects and opportunities for stronger collaboration in economy, trade and investment between Vietnam and the state. 

 

The two ministers introduced a number of leading businesses which want to seek business opportunities in their respective countries such as the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Limited (Vinacomin), the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, Sovico Holdings and VietJet Aviation JSC to the Vietnamese side, and Sunrise Group to the New South Wales side. 

 

Stressing the state’s cooperation potential in the field of coal, Anh suggested the Australian side introduce Vinacomin to coal suppliers in New South Wales, and urged Minister Blair to lead a delegation of New South Wales businesses to visit Vietnam. 

 

He proposed Australia use services of Vinalines to transport coal from Australia to Vietnam. 

 

The minister called on Australia to soon approve the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) to make the deal come into force at an early date, bringing many new opportunities for cooperation in economy and trade between the two countries. 

 

Minister Blair agreed with his Vietnamese counterpart’s proposals, and pledged to inform them to relevant Australian agencies in order to intensify cooperation activities between the two sides.

 

At the working session, the ministers also discussed cooperation opportunities in the sphere of aviation, including collaboration between VietJet Air and airports and airlines in New Castle and Brisbane cities.-VNA