The Australian minister said the two countries will have more opportunities to further boost their already growing cooperation, especially based on Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh’s Australia visit in September.

He made those remarks at a press briefing on the eighth meeting of the Australia-Vietnam Joint Trade and Economic Cooperation Committee (JTECC) in Hanoi on July 24.

At the eighth such meeting, co-chaired by Trade Minister Simon Crean and Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc, officials reviewed and evaluated the two countries’ cooperation.

They discussed options to step up joint efforts in education-training, finance-banking, infrastructure development, environmental management, energy development and agriculture.

They also touched upon capacity-building issues to help Vietnam in general and Vietnamese businesses in particular make the most of opportunities brought about by the opening of its market.

Minister Simon Crean said Australia ’s aid packages have all been targeted at capacity building and development.

Along with that, Australian and Vietnamese officials also discussed measures to elevate the roles played by Vietnam and Australia in regional and world cooperation, especially in the context of Vietnam becoming a WTO member and joining other ASEAN member countries and Australia in signing on to the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Zone.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment said that, due to the impact of the global economic crisis, economic cooperation, trade and investment between Vietnam and Australia has experienced a decline.

In the first quarter of this year, two-way trade dropped 45.7 percent to 699 million USD.

By the end of June, Australia had invested in 214 projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of 1.23 billion USD, ranking 19th among 86 countries and territories investing in the country. So far, 553 million USD of the registered capital has been disbursed.

Australia has gradually increased its non-refundable aid to Vietnam, with its 2009-2010 grant estimated to reach 105.9 million AUD.

Projects and programmes using Australia’s ODA have been carried out effectively, meeting Vietnam’s development requirements.

Recently, Australia has agreed to increase the number of Australian Development Scholarships for Vietnam to 175 a year./.