CONFERENCE ON 15 YEARS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ASEAN-AUSTRALIA-NEW ZEALAND FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (AANZFTA) AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR VIETNAMESE EXPORTS
On June 10, 2024, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Industry and Trade coordinated with the Australian Embassy and the Regional Trade for Development Program (RT4D) in Vietnam to organize a Conference “15 years of implementing the ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) and opportunities for Vietnamese exports Attending the Conference were leaders of the Department of Multilateral Trade Policy, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski, New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam Caroline Beresford, Regional Trade for Development (RT4D) representative; along with numerous representatives of ministries, branches, departments, relevant agencies, representatives of associations, businesses, scholars and economic experts. The conference aims to review the achievements achieved during the 15-year journey of implementing the AANZFTA Agreement, while introducing the Second Protocol amending AANZFTA (also known as the AANZFTA upgrade) and assessing the impacts of the Agreement for the business community and opportunities for Vietnamese exports in the process of implementing the Agreement in the coming time.
At the opening session of the Conference, Mr. Luong Hoang Thai, Director of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department highly appreciated the achievements after nearly 15 years of implementing the AANZFTA Agreement for regional economic and trade cooperation, In particular, trade turnover between ASEAN and Australia recorded impressive growth. In addition, the Agreement also contributes significantly to improving the competitiveness of the ASEAN region, strengthening the supply chain and the region's resilience to the impacts of complex developments in the region as well as world. Next, the Australian Ambassador and the New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam also highly appreciated the results achieved with the region in general and Vietnam in particular and looked forward to further promoting the economic cooperation relationship - trade with Vietnam. In addition, representatives of the Regional Trade for Development Program (RT4D) also affirmed that they will support ASEAN member countries to take full advantage of the benefits brought by the Agreement.
Also at the Conference, experts had 03 thematic discussion sessions on the following contents: (i) (i) 15 years of implementing AANZFTA - Looking back at the impact of the Agreement on Vietnam's development, cooperation and regional prosperity. Orientation for bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the future; (ii) Modern approaches to addressing trade barriers and new ways to improve trade facilitation; (iii) AANZFTA and the future vision of economic and trade relations between ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand: opportunities and challenges, towards a green, circular economy, small and medium enterprises, environment and sustainable development solid. These thematic discussion sessions have brought new approaches and new directions in parallel with providing policy solutions for both the public and private sectors to take full advantage of the benefits brought by the Agreement.
The conference took place successfully, this is a memorable milestone in efforts to promote cooperation between Vietnam - Australia - New Zealand for the development of the region and each country, opening up new opportunities. New cooperation for the Government as well as the business community./.