(VOVworld) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and a Vietnamese government delegation held dialogues with businesses from Vietnam and Australia on Tuesday as part of their visit to Australia. Topics for discussion included Vietnam’s economic development and development cooperation opportunities as offered by the Vietnamese-Australian comprehensive partnership. Prime Minister Dung said that more than 100 global corporations were investing in Vietnam and Vietnam has become a reliable and attractive investment destination: “The Vietnamese government will continue to fine-tune its market economic institutions to ensure a level playing field for domestic and foreign businesses in line with Vietnam’s international integration commitments. Vietnam will continue its international economic integration and implement its commitments to the WTO and other multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements. We have been implementing 8 free trade agreements and will continue to negotiate more free trade agreements, which will create a competitive business and investment environment in ASEAN and an appropriate legal framework in Vietnam.”

Prime Minister Dung said Vietnam has been implementing 3 strategic breakthroughs with the aim of attracting more investment, boosting economic development, fine-tuning market economic institutions, building infrastructure, and developing human resources. Vietnam will continue to ensure political and social stability and protect investors’ legitimate interests while enhancing the people’s right to freedom and democracy in economics and politics, considering this to be a target and impetus for rapid, sustainable economic growth. Prime Minister Dung said the Vietnamese government will create favorable conditions for domestic and foreign investors to make long-term investments in Vietnam.

Earlier, Prime Minister Dung met with a number of leading Australian businesses in the fields of information and telecommunications, mining, banking, energy, oil and gas.

Before leaving Sydney for Canberra, he met with Australia’s Governor General Peter Cosgrove and New South Wales’ Governor David Hurley. The Vietnamese government leader said Vietnam respected and wanted to strengthen its comprehensive partnership with Australia. He hailed Australia’s policy of fostering relations with countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including Vietnam. Australia’s Governor General Peter Cosgrove praised the prospects for Vietnamese-Australia relations and hoped that Prime Minister Dung’s visit would contribute significantly to bilateral ties in the future. During talks with New South Wales’ Governor, Prime Minister Dung asked the state to support Vietnamese businesses who wanted to seek investment and market expansion opportunities. Hurley pledged to encourage and facilitate New South Wales and Vietnamese businesses to cooperate for their mutual benefit.

The Prime Minister also met with Vietnamese student representatives and overseas Vietnamese in Sydney. He asked the Vietnamese community in Australia to unite and support one another as well as to enhance Vietnam’s cultural identity. He said he hoped that the Australian government would create favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community, which would contribute to fostering friendship and comprehensive partnership between the two countries.

Prime Minister Dung also visited and delivered an important speech at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

On Tuesday, Vietnam’s Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son visited and held a working session with the directors of Telstra, at which he said he hoped the company would cooperate with Vietnam in information and communications and participate in the equitization of the telecom sector in Vietnam. Both sides discussed ways to boost investment and trade cooperation as well as policy support for both countries’ telecom businesses.