Speech by HE Mr Allaster Cox, Australian Ambassador
at the Australia Day Reception 2012
Your Excellency Mr Bui Thanh Son, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
Excellencies, Colleague Ambassadors
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this reception at the Residence today to mark our Australia Day this year. Days such as these provide an opportunity to reflect both on the progress and the problems a nation faces in its national journey to build better, more prosperous and secure lives for its citizens.
For Australia, we are now entering the twentieth year of sustained economic growth since the difficult reform years of the mid 1980’s. This era has been a time of increased prosperity and new opportunity for many millions of Australians, even in the face of big national challenges, like the decade of terrible drought from 2000 to 2010.
But the world is dynamic.
Just as we reflect on our progress, new issues and problems, some previously masked, are increasingly apparent. For Australia, the extraordinary growth in our resources trade and the relative strength of our national finances have created a two-speed economy.
This in turn has created strong pressures for further restructuring and increased productivity – and further uncertainties for many families. The challenge is on us to again make difficult adaptations, to reform again in the face of new realities.
These challenges have to a large measure been the result of truly profound shifts in the global economy.
The on-going shift of the world’s economic centre of gravity towards developing Asia - the growth of China, India and the ASEAN economies including Vietnam - is driving changes which will have a profound impact, particularly on those of us in smaller and medium sized economies, open and exposed to change.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When I came to Hanoi in late 2008, Vietnam was grappling in a time of tumult. Vietnam had seen its widely hailed entry to the WTO in early 2007 stimulate a tremendous rush of foreign investment enthusiasm, but which was then followed by a painful bout of inflation rounded off by the global financial crisis. That was a time of uncertainty and confusion.
Today, in 2012, a few things have become clear.
First, in an era of economic integration, maintaining macro-economic stability is a tough ongoing task, but absolutely critical.
Second, with increased integration, infrastructure bottlenecks, skills shortages and institutional weaknesses become all the more problematic.
And third, being near or at the centre of the shift in gravity of world economic power is not an easy ride; it’s complicated, full of potential but many pitfalls too. In Australia we know this too.
These understandings underpin Vietnam’s new agenda. The government has articulated its priorities. The question is now one of implementation.
The Australian Government is committed to advancing our relationship with Vietnam to address these goals.
The Comprehensive Partnership we signed in 2009 embodied – for Australia - a strong desire that Vietnam be a stronger, robust and more prosperous partner in coming decades.
So our enhanced political and strategic dialogue, our increased aid program, strengthened education ties including many additional scholarships, and our expanded police and border control programs are all dedicated to that objective.
Of course there is much more to do.
First, we need to boost our economic partnership. Our goods and services trade, at just over $ 6 billion last year, needs to increase. Our two-way investment stock also needs to deepen, especially in resources and energy, but also in services, banking, finance and education. There are good foundations in these areas, but we need to build on them. In the coming phase, the Trans Pacific Partnership can make a significant contribution to these objectives.
Second, we need to contribute more to Vietnam’s goal of institutional strengthening. Our growing engagement with the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuracy are an indicator of our commitment.
Third, we need to take our education ties to the next level through increased partnerships in scientific research. We need to work more with Vietnam’s outstanding PhDs, including those from Australian universities, to address the most pressing problems in medicine, climate change and food security, just to name a few.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As two medium sized nations in a wider region of great dynamism and change, at different levels of economic development and with complementary strengths, Australia and Vietnam have much to share.
As the emerging global situation has become clear we have built up a new base on which to take our partnership forward. The task now is to detail the strategy and make the right policy choices, both as individual nations and as partners, which will produce shared success.
Kính thưa quý vị, tôi xin mời quý vị nâng cốc chúc mừng Chủ tịch Nước Cộng hoà Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, Đảng, Chính phủ và Nhân dân Việt Nam.
Chúc mừng quan hệ hữu nghị giữa Việt Nam và Australia
Chúc sức khoẻ Ngài Bùi Thanh Sơn
Chúc quý vị sức khoẻ, may mắn và hạnh phúc
Xin trân trọng cảm ơn!