The ceremony of the Vietnam-Australia Business Champions Initiative took place in Hanoi on the morning of October 18 in the presence of the Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong and the Australian Assistant Minister for Trade and Manufacturing Tim Ayres, as well as some Australian and Vietnamese enterprises.

Tran Duy Dong underlined that, after a year of executing the project, pioneering entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Australia have engaged in several important activities, therefore generating significant value for the business communities of the two nations.

Tim Ayres, Australian Assistant Minister for Trade and Manufacturing, and Tran Duy Dong, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment

“Before today's event, I also had a brief conversation with pioneer entrepreneurs, and I admired their aggressive, passionate, and enthusiastic attitude, as well as the positive early results produced over the past year,” Dong stressed.

Australian Assistant Minister for Trade and Manufacturing Tim Ayres also acknowledged the brief but productive discussion with six leading entrepreneurs.

“Deputy Minister Tran Duy Dong and I sat with the pioneer entrepreneurs of the two nations, listened to their many excellent proposals, and will take concrete steps to expand prospects for investment, exporters, and importers of the two countries.”

Both parties reaffirmed their resolve to continue fostering advantageous investment and trade arrangements between the two nations. The Vietnamese side emphasised that it will remove barriers to market entry, import-export procedures, and land, while the Australian side expressed support for pioneering businesses' investment plans.

According to Dong, this is a significant and meaningful event that celebrates the efforts and positive achievements of Vietnamese-Australian pioneering businesses over the previous year to boost effective trade and investment relations between the two nations.

Both are certain that the two nations will achieve their aim of being one of the top 10 trade partners of each other and achieving a twofold increase in two-way investment.

Six pioneering entrepreneurs from Vietnam and Australia have been selected as senior, experienced executives from prominent enterprises and corporations in critical sectors of the agricultural economy; industrial production; mining; steel manufacturing of steel; technological solutions; and banking and education by the authorities of the two nations.

These are entrepreneurs from TH Group, Hoa Phat Group, Vietcombank, Aurecon Group, Sunrice Group, RMIT University, and Bean Centre.

Two ministers rewarded to six outstanding entrepreneurs from two nations

In both countries, the Business Champions have already been active. The Australian Business Champions convened over one hundred business and government leaders for a series of roundtables in five Australian states and one territory. The Vietnamese Business Champions have formed a business network, co-chaired a roundtable with more than one hundred enterprises in attendance, and participated in high-level government discussions.

In August 2019, the prime ministers of Australia and Vietnam agreed to construct an Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy, with the goals of becoming one of the top 10 trading partners and tripling bilateral investment. The Business Champions were selected based on their stellar reputation and their representation of important sectors for the economic cooperation between Australia and Vietnam. Their duty is to promote Australia-Vietnam trade and investment, encourage interaction with industry, and report back to governments on both commercial possibilities and problems.