Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA) Vietnam and Australia areboth members of at least three free trade agreements, namely ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA),CPTPP and the Regional Economic Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
According to data of the GeneralStatistics Office of Vietnam, last year, two-way trade between Vietnam andAustralia hit 12.4 billion USD for the first time, up more than 49 percentcompared with that of 2020. The value ofshipments to Australia reached more than 4.45 billion USD, a year-on-year increaseof 23 percent. Vietnam spent nearly 8 billion USD in importing goods fromAustralia, up nearly 70 percent against 2020’s figure.
Vietnam's exports to Australia are growingstrongly, reaching 1.38 billion USD in the first quarter of 2022, a surge of32.36 percent against the same period last year.
Sharp increases were seen in Vietnam’s export of variousagricultural and industrial products to Australia, for example 84percent in coffee, 51 percent in aquatic products, 41 percent in rubber, and 26 percent in electriccable. Notably, the shipments of iron and steel skyrocketed bymore than 500 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, the country is buying more and more essential materials from Australia, such as coal, iron ore, metals, cotton, wheat, and animal feed. In particular, Vietnam's import value of coal from Australia in Q1 surged 176 percent year on year and that of cotton shot up 333 percent.
The CPTPP also serves asmomentum for bilateral cooperation in terms of investment. By the endof last year, there were about 550 Australian investment projects in Vietnamwith a total value of nearly 2 billion USD, ranking 19th among foreign investors in the country.
Graham Kinder, Vice Chairmanof the Australia-Vietnam Business Council, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that Australian companies see manyinvestment opportunities in Vietnam in the fields of trade, investment,education and transport that are Australia’s strengths, thus they are keen topromote their investments in Vietnam. Similarly, Vietnamese enterprises canexpand their investment and business operation in areas of their strength in Australian states andlocalities.
It is now the right time for businesses of both countries to take advantage of opportunities for cooperation in thepost-pandemic period as borders have been reopened and both governments seek topromote investment activities, he said./.
VNA
