A large number of guests attended the Vietnam 2025 Update Conference. (Photo: VOV)

At the  conference, Professor Carl Thayer presented an overview of the ongoing restructuring of Party, National Assembly, and Government agencies, as well as the restructuring of administrative units into a two-tier governance model.

He said: "The restructuring program that General Secretary To Lam has brought about is absolutely necessary for Vietnam if it wants to actually move up the scale in the world in terms of high-end production. All the things that made Vietnam successful are now overtaken by science, technology, innovation, digital transformation. But he's also learned, just doing that isn't enough. That he says rightly, the overlapping institution, the bottlenecks, the overlapping responsibility needs to be clarified. And so what, what he's done, is initiate a thoroughgoing program. It's still a work in progress, but it's necessary because otherwise we see Vietnam can't absorb  certain foreign aid, certain foreign investment."

Vietnam is among Australia’s most important strategic and economic partners. The two countries have upgraded their ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, with strong cooperation spanning defense–security, economy, education, climate change, energy, and digital transformation.