The two ministers compared notes on bilateral cooperation in trade and industry, as well as hygiene, quarantine, and transferring seafood processing technology. They also examined ways to take advantage of the incentives offered under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA).
Vietnam suggested that Australia support the Seafood Importers Association’s proposal to open a quality control office in Vietnam in order to facilitate the country’s exports to Australia.
The two sides also pledged to make all-out efforts to boost the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations between ASEAN member countries and their partners.
Australia will consider and give official opinions on continuing its technical assistance to Vietnam through the Austrian Agency for International Development (AusAID) in the post-WTO period.
In response to Vietnam’s proposal to increase energy cooperation, Australia supports extending the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on energy cooperation until 2016
Minster Hoang worked with a number of Australian ministries on cooperating in oil and gas exploration and exploitation, energy conservation, and importing and exporting coal, and witnessed the signing of MoUs and long-term coal supply contracts between Vietnamese and Austrian groups.
During his visit, Minister Hoang also met with the governors of Queensland and New South Wales to discuss expanding trade and energy cooperation.