Melissa Keane

Partner at Allens, an international commercial law firm with offices throughout Australia and Asia

“Most of the progress in Vietnam is not thanks to one person or one firm. It's very impressive how well the business community in Vietnam works together and to achieve good outcomes.”

Melissa Keane thinks of the 50 years of relations between Vietnam and Australia as exciting and eventful.

Melissa has spent a large part of her work advising international energy and infrastructure developers, investors, and financiers on a range of renewable energy projects in Vietnam. Her story with Vietnam started way back in her neighbourhood in Melbourne which had a lot of Vietnamese community members. Melissa felt that exact sentiment from the team members she worked with when deployed to the Hanoi office of Allens from 2008 to 2012 and then again from 2019 to 2021. These two stints, plus still covering Vietnam from her base in Melbourne today, have exposed Melissa to great opportunities to contribute to bilateral relations.. One of those relates to the energy sector, where Melissa has witnessed Vietnam transform from being heavily dependent on fossil fuels to viewing clean energy as an inevitable pathway for sustainable development. Through many years working with the Australian Chamber of Commerce, EuroCham, and AmCham committees on energy she has watched the industry work together to help the Vietnamese government come up with good policies and provide the best sort of advice and assistance to make sure that the industry can grow in the best way it can and still meet Vietnam’s energy needs.

“Most of the progress in Vietnam is not thanks to one person or one firm,” said Melissa. “It's very impressive how well the business community in Vietnam works together to achieve good outcomes.”

During her second time being based in Hanoi, in 2020, Vietnam passed the first specific law to regulate the public-private partnerships. Melissa was one of those helping business associations provide inputs into the drafting of the law, which she takes great pride in. She’s also a tireless advocate for investment in Vietnam. Seeing great opportunities for the Australian government and businesses in supporting Vietnam to manage its energy transition, but also manufacturing, food and wine, tourism and education, she has shared her insights about doing business in Vietnam via platforms such as the Australia Vietnam Policy Institute or Asia Society Australia. Melissa’s advice for those interested in investing in Vietnam and is to make sure your plan is a long term and that you’re not looking to turn things around really quickly. You need to invest time and build relationships. You can't just come for a two week trip and hope you’ll meet all of the important people, and that everything will just happen!

During her career, Melissa has witnessed how strong the relationship between Vietnam and Australia has gotten. “It's just continued to get stronger and stronger and stronger. And I'm very proud to be part of that journey, and I'm very excited to see what more Australia and Vietnam can do together in the next 50 years,” Melissa said.