Australia Month – Media Briefing
Speech by
Australian Ambassador, H.E Mr Bill Tweddell
11 January, 2007 – Hanoi
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media. I would first like to welcome you to the Australian Embassy and I thank you for coming out on this chilly winter’s day to hear me speak.
Before I start with my main message, I would like to note what an important and indeed special day today is for Vietnam. I will not say any more, but would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the people and government of Vietnam for its accession to the World Trade Organisation. Australia has always been a strong supporter of this effort and we look forward to this success further contributing to Vietnam’s prosperity and place in the international community.
Now back to the reason we a here today. The most important role of the Australian Embassy in Hanoi has been to work with Vietnam to build our relationship and to promote Australia and Australia’s interests in Vietnam. This year, as part of that effort, the Embassy will hold a series of public events throughout January and early February. The events, organised by the Embassy’s Australian Education International and Public Affairs and Cultural Relations sections, will focus on two of our most interesting areas of cooperation - education and cultural relations.
Australian Education International, also known as AEI, will hold five events in January. The first, held two days ago on Tuesday 9 January, was a free half-day “Pre-departure Seminar” for Vietnamese students who will soon leave to undertake study in Australia.
The seminar, which was open to all Vietnamese people who will study in Australia, imparted important information on issues such as: studying and living in Australia; Australia’s quarantine laws; cultural information; how best to maintain contact with friends and family at home; and how to meet other Vietnamese students in Australia – to name just a few of the topics covered.
AEI holds the seminar four times a year – in December and January, and in May and June – to coincide with the start of the academic semester in Australia. Currently only three to four hundred students attend the seminars each year, out of approximately 1000 Vietnamese students from Hanoi who travel to Australia annually for study. I would encourage as many students a possible to take advantage of this important and valuable opportunity.
The second AEI related event will be a tennis tournament organised by the Hanoi chapter of the Vietnamese Graduates from Australia Club, or VGAC. The “VGAC Tennis Tournament” will be held on Saturday 13 January and will be open to all VGAC member, their families and friends, students studying at Australia universities and institutions in Vietnam, and all Australian alumni in Vietnam. The tournament will be held at the Sao Mai Club in Tay Ho district.
On Friday 19 January, I will host the presentation of the “Australian Endeavour Scholarship Awards”. The awards, ranging in value from A$25,000 to A$195,000, will be given to 17 outstanding young Vietnamese researchers. The “Endeavour Awards” are part of the larger $1.4 billion Australian Scholarship Program, which will provide a total of more than 19,000 scholarships to students from across the Asia-Pacific region to study and train in Australia.
For me, education is a vitally important element in the sustainable development of any nation and it also a highly successful part of our bilateral relationship. I am pleased and proud to be able to present the Endeavour Awards to these remarkable up and coming individuals. Indeed, I consider it a highlight of my career as a diplomat to have come in to contact with so many strong achievers throughout my career, and these 17 people are part of the group. I find it has always been a valuable experience to be able to discuss with them their ideas on the future of their countries and their plans and expectations of life once they have returned from Australia. It is a truly exciting time for them.
The same sentiment would apply to the winners of the “Eureka – Challenge You Mind Contest”, which is a science competition for high school students organized by AEI in conjunction with Hoa Hoc Tro magazine.
The idea is for students to create toys and games that work on scientific principles; in so doing they are able to increase their scientific knowledge base. The contest encourages in them important notions of invention and creativity, and of course, allows them to have a bit of fun while learning. The contest also highlights Australian achievements and developments in science, but the main aim of the competition is to foster in young Vietnamese people, a strong interest in science.
The finalists will be selected by a panel of high school teachers, scientists and journalists and the winners will be announced on Sunday 21 January at the National Library in Hanoi. So far more than 502 proposals for inventions and 20 products have been received from high school students around the country.
On the same day, 21 January, AEI will open an exhibition of the winning photos from a photographic contest titled, “Australia – A Lifelong Experience”. The photos explore the daily life of Vietnamese students in Australia, with an emphasis on Australia’s multicultural society. The contest has been co-organised by the Vietnam Dynamic Students Club of NSW in Australia and the winning photos will be displayed at the National Library here in Hanoi for seven days.
Entry to the exhibition will be free and I encourage all Vietnamese people to go and have a sticky-beak at the photos, which portray regular everyday Australian life as experienced through the eyes of Vietnamese people, or through a Vietnamese lens to put it another way
Now as you would all know, I’m sure, Australia Day is celebrated every year on 26 January. However, this year the Embassy’s Australia Day function will be held one day before, on 25 January, at the Melia Hotel.
Australia is populated by people from more than two hundred cultures and countries around the world; as such this year’s theme for the event will be “Multicultural Australia”. The 500 or so invited guests will be served a small number of samples from the vast range of ethnic food available in Australia; foods that have collectively come to be considered as Australian cuisine.
And last, but definitely not least, will be the “Australian Embassy Film Roadshow”. This year the Film Roadshow will run from 20 January till 4 February and films will be shown in a total of nine cities throughout Vietnam –making it on of the largest foreign film festival to have come to Vietnam. Some of you may recall that the Australian Embassy Film Roadshow has been successfully held in Vietnam three times previously; in 2001, 2003 and 2005.
The 2007 festival will include a selection of six of Australia’s finest feature films and a short film will also be shown at each session. Each film will be shown in both English and Vietnamese.
This year’s festival will start in Ho Chi Minh City on 20 January where it will run until 24 January and all films will be shown at Diamond Plaza Cinema. The festival will then move to Hanoi where it will open on Australia Day, 26 January, with an invite only VIP Opening Night Party. It will run till 1 February, with two films showing every night except Monday 29 January. In Hanoi, the festival will be screened at the National Cinema Centre.
The Embassy will then tour Hanoi’s opening night film, Danny Deckchair, to seven cities in the north of Vietnam. From 27 January to 4 February, the Embassy will show the film for one night each in the cities of Son La, Dien Bien Phu, Lai Chau, Sa Pa, Lao Cai, Ha Giang, and Cao Bang. In order to allow the largest number of people to see the film, and weather permitting, the film will be screened at outdoor venues in each of these cities.
We at the Embassy are quite excited about this rather significant undertaking, not least because we are keen to showcase Australian Cinema to all people in Vietnam, and particularly to those who may otherwise not have had an opportunity to see Australian movies before. As such, admission to all movies in all cities will be free. I would strongly encourage people from all parts of Vietnamese society, whether a regular movie-goer, or someone who has never been to a cinema before, to get along and see as many films as possible.
I have provided for you a brief outline of the Australian Embassy’s public diplomacy events due to be held in January 2007, Australia Month. I would like now to introduce my colleagues who will answer any questions you may have about Australia Month. From AEI we have Ms Hoang Van Anh, AEI’s Northern Vietnam Business Development Manager, and Ms Le Thi Thu Hien, AEI Deputy Director for Vietnam. While from the Embassy’s Public Affairs and Cultural Relations Section, we have Damien Coke, 3rd Secretary for political and cultural matters, and Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh An, Manager of the Public Diplomacy Unit for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
I leave you now in the capable hands of my colleagues. Thank you again for coming out today to hear about Australia Month and I hope you will have the chance to participate and attend many of these events.
Thank you.