At the reception, Mrs. Karen Lanyon highly valued traditional friendship-cooperation relation between Vietnam and Australia. Both countries have achieved many positive results in fields of trade, health, education, etc. She said 30,000 Vietnamese students are studying in Australia, some Australian schools are operating in Vietnam, this is a sign of close co-operation between both countries.

Beside education, Mrs. Karen Lanyon added Vietnam is now the most attractive destination of Australian tourists and HCMC is the most potential market for Australian companies.
 
In her new tenure in HCMC, she expressed her hope that HCMC’s authority will create favor-able conditions for Australia to organize friendship and co-operation promotion programs be-tween HCMC with localities of Australia.

Mr. Phong said Vietnam always attaches importance to comprehensive co-operation relation with foreign countries including Australia. Today, Australia is the 10th largest trade partner of Vietnam and Vietnam is of the 20 largest trade partners of Australia.
At local level, Mr. Phong has briefed HCMC’s socio-economic development. With a population of over 10 million plus underdeveloped infrastructure, HCMC is facing with many difficulties and having direct impacts on people’s lives.
 
Mr. Phong expressed his hope that in her new tenure in HCMC, Mrs. Karen Lanyon will en-courage Australian companies to strengthen their investment in HCMC in fields of urban in-frastructure, environmental pollution, Metro lines, human resource, etc.
 

HCM CITYWEB