NA Chairwoman meets Australian Prime Minister

ABO/NDO – National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on August 23 affirmed that the Vietnamese legislature always supports the strong development of ties with Australia, a partner with increasingly important stature in Asia-Pacific and the world.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (R) and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Photo: VNA)

During a meeting with visiting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Hanoi, Ngan expressed her belief that with an annual average economic growth of 2.5 - 3.5 percent, Australia will succeed in building a multicultural, modern and prosperous country, thus making positive contributions to peace, stability and development in the region and the world.

She noted that bilateral ties are growing, especially in trade and investment with a two-way trade of US$7.7 billion last year, up 19.3 percent year-on-year. The figure for the first half of this year was US$3.84 billion.

As of June 2019, Australian investors poured US$1.86 billion into 458 projects, ranking 20th among the 136 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

The host said the Vietnamese NA highly values the Australian parliament’s support in successfully organising recent international and regional inter-parliamentary conferences, including the 26th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF-26) held in January last year.

Morrison, for his part, said links between the two legislatures have become increasingly effective.

He emphasised that Australia always backs Vietnam in shouldering its role as the Chair of ASEAN and Chair of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly next year.

On the East Sea issue, host and guest affirmed the importance of the countries’ continuation of settling the disputes by peaceful means, avoiding threatening or use of force, in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

On the occasion, the top Vietnamese legislator thanked the Australian government for creating favourable conditions for more than 300,000 Vietnamese living and working there. Over 30,000 Vietnamese students are now studying in Australia.

More than 380,000 Australian tourists visited Vietnam last year.

NA Chairwoman Ngan suggested that Morrison offer all possible support to Vietnamese firms in aviation.

(Source: NDO)