Transcript
24 July, 2009, Ministry of Planning and Investment, Hanoi, Vietnam
Opening Remarks - 8th Australia-Vietnam Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee (JTECC)
The Hon Simon Crean MP, Minister for Trade, Australia
H.E. Mr Vo Hong Phuc, Minister of Planning and Investment, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
MINISTER PHUC: Your Excellency, distinguished guests.
We are very glad to welcome your Excellency Mr Simon Crean to participate in the 8th Australia-Vietnam Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee (JTECC).
We have had seven meetings so far and through those meetings the bilateral relationship between Australia and Vietnam has strengthened.
We hope that our 8th meeting today will lay new foundations for strengthening the cooperation between Australia and Vietnam.
As you may know, this meeting is organised after the visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Australia in October 2008 and this meeting occurs in the context of our preparing for the visit of the General Secretary to Australia.
In this meeting, we not only touched upon the bilateral relationship in terms of investment and trade in Australia, but we also discussed options for strengthening and pushing forward the relationship between Vietnam and Australia in relation to the ASEAN forum and APEC forum.
You will also know this meeting is taking place in the context of the financial crisis and economic slowdown in which both Vietnam and Australia have been negatively affected.
The financial crisis and economic slowdown has impacted negatively on the Vietnamese and Australian economies and has also impacted negatively on Australia-Vietnam trade in terms of trade volumes and investment.
But recent indicators from the global economy have shown positive signs for improvement and the future of cooperation between Australia and Vietnam in the time ahead.
We hope that Australia-Vietnam cooperation will be fruitful in the future.
Once again, I would like to express my gratitude and warmly welcome the Minister to Vietnam.
MINISTER CREAN: Minister Phuc, it is a great honour to be holding this 8th ministerial meeting on economic cooperation between our two countries with you.
The Australian Government takes its relationship with Vietnam very seriously.
This meeting comes between two important meetings between the leadership of both our countries: your Prime Minister's visit to Australia last October and your General Secretary's visit.
Both Prime Ministers tasked us to undertake this JTECC meeting in preparation for the important follow-up meeting with the General Secretary.
It's also important historically because a previous Labor Government welcomed former General Secretary Do Muoi to Australia back in 1995.
I was part of that Government and had the pleasure to visit this country in 1995 and sign a memorandum of understanding on education and training cooperation.
An earlier government, the Whitlam Labor Government, in 1973 was very quick to recognise Vietnam after the conflict in the region.
My father was part of that Government.
So we have a lot of history to build on, but it's the future we must secure together.
I think our officials should also be congratulated on the excellent agenda that they have prepared for us.
It will provide much opportunity for discussion both in terms of regional issues as well as the bilateral-specific issues.
I also comment on the context in which we meet, and you alluded to this, and the global financial crisis which has impacted on both our economies.
Both of us have had to undertake important stimulus measures to help us come through this period.
But another important reason why Australia has been able to weather the storm better than any other country in the developed world is because of important structural reform decisions it took 20 years ago.
Reforms, amongst other things, to drop tariff barriers, to open the economy to global engagement, to float the exchange rate, to welcome foreign banking, to strengthen our ability to participate not just in product market flows but also in financial market flows.
Our financial services sector is amongst the strongest in the developed world and it has not been as impacted by the subprime fall out as has Europe and the United States.
I know in bilateral issues we're going to be talking about the financial services sector but this is an important backdrop to keep in mind.
The floating of the Australian dollar was fundamental to us improving our competitiveness.
When we had the exchange rate fixed, speculators would speculate against us, the Government.
With an open exchange rate they have to speculate against each other and take the risk.
And even though when the dollar goes up it goes up because of commodity prices, overall it has been a significant realignment for our export industries.
It has forced them to become more competitive and that's why in the current crisis we are also performing much better than most other countries.
Another key decision was to focus the emphasis of our economic engagement much more with Asia.
And this was the decision that led to your former General Secretary's visit to Australia in the mid-1990s.
I think the opportunity for this engagement is appropriate, it is the opportunity for a significant building block going forward, and I look forward to developing that cooperation much more strongly between our two countries.
Thank you.
[ENDS]
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