HCM City, Western Australia seek ways to boost trade ties: Participants take a group photo at the reception. (Photo: VNA)

On March 7, during his reception for Deputy Premier of Western Australia Roger Cook Mla, who was on a working visit to the city, Vice Chairman Hoan said the visit is a meaningful activity in the year when the two countries celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of the diplomatic ties, contributing to further promoting cooperation between HCM City and the Australian state, and strengthening the bilateral relations as well.

The strong development of bilateral relations has created favourable conditions for cooperation between the localities of the two nations, the city leader stressed.

Western Australia is the fourth state of Australia after Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales to open a trade and investment representative office in the locality, Hoan said, adding that the move has contributed to creating new connections between the two sides, especially in trade, investment, tourism, education, innovation and entrepreneurship.

For his part, Deputy Premier Mla said Western Australia is eager to strengthen cooperation with HCM City in the fields of energy, tourism, creativity, culture, and education – training.

He affirmed that the operation of its trade and investment representative office is a specific measure to promote trade cooperation between the Vietnamese and Australian localities.

According to the official, there are over 12,000 Vietnamese people living in Western Australia. The Vietnamese community has made many contributions to the development of the state.

At the local level, Western Australia has signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau in 2021.

Australia has so far run nearly 800 projects with a total investment of over 900 million USD in HCM City, ranking 19th among 117 countries and territories investing in the southern hub. Two-way trade between HCM City and Australia reached more than 1.4 billion USD last year.