Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: It's a very exciting time to be Australia's ambassador in Vietnamon the anniversary of our 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations. I think Ican say very confidently that at no time in history has our relationship beenstronger or better than it is today.

It's built on a very strong feeling of mutual trust and on practicalcooperation across so many fields over so many years. And for that, I reallyhave to thank successive Australian ambassadors and Vietnamese leaders forenabling these strong areas of cooperation to develop. And I'm thinking ofdefence cooperation, education, trade, and the important people-to-people linksthat we enjoy.

Reporter: How do you assess the results of the two country’s people-to-peoplediplomacy over the past 50 years?

Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: When I was in Melbourne in December with the Chairman of theNational Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue, I realised that in Melbourne, Vietnamese isthe second language after English.

There is a huge number of Vietnamese Australians and increasingly these youngpeople are coming back to Vietnam to start businesses, to establish workingrelationships. So these people-to-people links are important. In addition tothat, we estimate we have between 80,000 and 100,000 alumni here of Vietnamesestudents who have studied in Australia and returned to Vietnam. They are nowbuilding their careers in business, in government and elsewhere. That is animportant element of the people-to-people links as well. Now that bothcountries are open, we've both done quite well in managing COVID, tourism willincrease as well.

All of this says that there's going to be a very bright future for the twocountries in terms of those people-to-people connections.

Reporter: During the visit to Australia by National Assembly Chairman VuongDinh Hue, the leaders of the two sides agreed to support the two countries inupgrading their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership at asuitable time. What is the likelihood of this happening this year especiallygiven the 50th anniversary?

Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: I'm very optimistic. The fact that a leader as senior as Vuong DinhHue announced the intention when he was in Australia in December, I think is avery positive sign. As you probably know, until recently, there were only threecountries that had that level of relationship with Vietnam.

Those were China, Russia, and India. And then in December, Korea was includedin that list.

If we can be the next country, we'll be very happy. And I think this year wehave so many high-level visits in both directions. There should be ampleopportunity for that announcement.

And once we do have that higher level of relations, that will open the way toincreasing cooperation in new areas. And the new areas that we are thinkingabout are climate change, energy transition, and some of the more high-techareas of cooperation that I know Vietnam and Australia are both very interestedin.

Reporter: What plans does the Australian Government have to cooperate with Vietnamto further promote gender equality?

Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: That's an important part of what we do. In our system, ourdevelopment cooperation programmes have to have at least 80% of all theprograms with an impact on women. And in this country, I think it's evenhigher.

This year our total development cooperation investment with Vietnam will reach 3billion AUD and it's still growing. And a big focus of that is on theempowerment of women.

What we know in Australia, and this is what international research also underlinesis, unless you give women the opportunity to fully develop in commerce and ingovernment, a country cannot fully realise its potential.

We recently established within the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, acentre called the Vietnam Australia Center. And that grew out of our work withthe Hồ Chí Minh Political Academy around women's leadership.

The Vietnamese side really values this area of the work we're doing, and Ithink that's going to continue to grow.

Reporter: What are the potential opportunities for cultural cooperation andexchange between our two countries? And how could Vietnam promote furthercultural exchange with Australia?

Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: Culture and the arts speak to us in a way which is different fromthe way politicians do.

I've just come from HCM City where this morning the chairman of the people'sCommittee of HCM City put on a fantastic concert for Australia to celebrate the50th anniversary.

Last night the Consulate General in HCM City also put on a concert, whichincluded performances by prominent Vietnamese artists and Australian artists.

I was particularly pleased that we had two very famous Australian indigenousartists because in Australia we're very proud of the fact that we have theoldest living culture in the world, at 65,000 years.

That is an important element of what we can share with Vietnam.

Reporter: Does Australia have any plans to promote innovation and educationpartnerships?

Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: Innovation is a very important part of what we are doing.

We have a programme called Aus4Innovation and we are about to extend that foranother four or five years and increase the investment.

Vietnam has prospered very well with an economic model, which has depended onemployment-intensive manufacturing, and that's worked well. But for Vietnam toprogress to the next level of development, it needs to go up the value curveand move into high-tech, Industry 4.0, AI, quantum computing.

And the application of all these things in agriculture, in business, infinance, that's where Australia will start to play an even bigger role in Vietnamthan in the past.

You know, Australia started the whole IT process here in Vietnam. The firstsatellite communications, the first undersea cables, the first ATMs were allbrought by Australia.

Then I think we became less involved. Well now we're coming back, and I thinkwe are going to see a lot more cooperation in the innovation space between ourcountries.

Reporter: Does Australia, as a leader in clean technology and a trustedpartner, have any plans to help Vietnam achieve economic development but alsoensure the net zero goal by 2050?

Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: Vietnam and Australia have different economies, but we are dealingwith the same challenge with fossil fuels. We're both very dependent. We canwork with Vietnam for both our benefits.

Australia already is investing in wind farms onshore and offshore, and ourenergy regulator is ready to start talks with the Vietnamese energy regulatorabout how we can compare our systems for ensuring that we are maximising thebenefit of renewable energy.

Reporter: What is your message on this important anniversary, and what otheractivities do you have coming up this year to celebrate the occasion?

Ambassador Andrew Goledzinowski: The message tonight really is about friendship. And it's aboutthanking the people who have worked so hard over the 50 years to create thisrelationship. And it's about looking forward to the things we can achievetogether in the future. This year there'll be many more things coming up.

There'll be a number of important activities, some showcasing our indigenouscultures, some showcasing our food and wine, and we will have a number of veryhigh-level visitors as well.

Vietnam is, I think, Australia's favourite country at the moment. Everybodywants to come here and we are going to take advantage of that./.