On the sidelines of the ceremony announcing the 2025 Provincial FTA Index, a reporter from Industry and Trade Newspaper spoke with Australian Ambassador to Viet Nam Gillian Bird about the role of the FTA Index in helping businesses make better use of FTAs, opportunities to promote bilateral trade and investment, and expectations for strengthening bilateral relations, particularly following the State visit to Australia by General Secretary and President To Lam and a high-level Vietnamese delegation.

Strengthening bilateral economic relations

- What economic outcomes does Your Excellency expect from General Secretary and President To Lam’s visit to Australia?

Ambassador Gillian Bird: What we hope to see following this very successful visit is a continued strengthening of the trade and economic relationship between our two countries. We were very pleased that General Secretary and President To Lam and the high-level Vietnamese delegation made a State visit to Australia.

The trade and economic relationship between Australia and Viet Nam has already achieved many positive results, but we believe there is still much more that the two countries can do together.

I particularly see many opportunities arising from Viet Nam's strong economic successes and its transformation towards becoming a high-income country by 2045.

The Australian and Vietnamese economies are complementary to each other. I think this is a very significant advantage and creates many opportunities for the two countries to continue expanding economic cooperation in the time ahead.

One area where we believe the two countries can do more is supply chains. I think this will continue to be an important area in the Australia-Viet Nam economic relationship.

We want to continue strengthening trade and economic ties between the two countries, making use of the complementary strengths of our economies and identifying further opportunities for cooperation in areas where both sides have potential.

Given what has already been achieved, I believe the Australia - Viet Nam relationship has a very strong foundation. We need to continue looking for new opportunities to strengthen two-way trade and investment, particularly in areas such as supply chains and emerging areas that are creating many opportunities for both economies.

More opportunities to boost trade and investment

- Australia and Viet Nam are enjoying increasingly strong trade relations. In Your Excellency’s view, what are the next opportunities for the two countries to strengthen trade and investment cooperation?

Ambassador Gillian Bird: That is right. We have a very strong bilateral trade and investment partnership. Two-way trade reached AUD 30 billion in 2025, doubling since 2020. However, I believe there is still much more that the two countries can do together.

In particular, Party General Secretary and State President To Lam visited Australia last week and discussed this issue with the Australian Prime Minister. The two leaders agreed that we really want to strengthen two-way trade and investment, particularly investment flows.

I believe this is a very important direction for the economic relationship between our two countries. We have achieved significant results, but there are still many opportunities to further expand trade and investment flows.

We are using FTAs, as well as other approaches, to promote relations between the two countries. At the same time, we are also focusing on a number of key areas, including digital transformation, supply chain resilience and artificial intelligence (AI).

I believe all of these are areas with significant potential for cooperation between Australia and Viet Nam. Promoting trade and investment relations in these areas will help strengthen connectivity between the two economies and open up further opportunities for cooperation.

Therefore, although bilateral trade and investment relations are already very strong, I believe we can do even more. FTAs are one of the tools to achieve this, but alongside FTAs, we also need to continue looking for new ways to cooperate, particularly in areas that are becoming increasingly important to the economy, such as digital transformation, AI and supply chains.

FTA Index helps businesses make better use of FTAs

- Australia has supported Viet Nam in developing the new FTA Index. Why is this tool important, and how will the FTA Index help Vietnamese businesses make better use of free trade agreements?

Ambassador Gillian Bird: I am very pleased that Australia has been able to support Viet Nam in developing the FTA Index. Australia and Viet Nam are both members of three very important regional free trade agreements: the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

These are all very important agreements, but I think FTAs can only really deliver their full benefits when businesses use them. That is also why we are very pleased to be able to support the FTA Index. This tool helps track how FTAs are being used across different localities in Viet Nam. In doing so, the FTA Index can help businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, make better use of the free trade agreements to which Viet Nam is a party.

I think this is a very important point. When businesses can make better use of FTAs, the commitments contained in the agreements will not simply remain on paper, but can create real trade and investment opportunities.

- Thank you very much, your excellency.

Ultimately, more effective use of FTAs will help promote two-way trade and investment between Australia and Viet Nam. That is what we want, and it is also one of the reasons why Australia values supporting Viet Nam in developing the FTA Index.