From September 21 to 25, you led a government and business mission to Vietnam to explore cooperative opportunities across the energy transition, primary industries, and international education sectors. What were your key expectations from the visit?
Two-way trade between Western Australia and Vietnam totaled around about $2.7 billion in 2025. We see this as a substantial foundation to continue to grow the relationship and the economic opportunities in trade and investment between Vietnam and Western Australia.
The focus of this visit was to continue to build government-to-government ties and also to provide an opportunity for companies from three specific sectors in Western Australia to grow their partnerships.
Firstly, the energy sector is an important part of both our countries, which are both going through a clean energy transition. Western Australia has significant resources and capabilities in the energy space. We are looking to see how we can help to create energy as a key partnership between Vietnam and Western Australia.
Second, in agriculture, we have been a reliable supplier of agricultural products, particularly cereals and grains, for many years now. We want to continue to grow that and to see how we can move more toward value-added products, food processing, and agri-food products, to build the total dollars associated with agricultural products.
Third, in international education, Western Australia has a very strong higher education and vocational education and training sector, and we believe that there are significant opportunities in growing the partnership between Vietnam and Western Australia to look at how we can enhance skills, particularly for building a skilled workforce for Vietnam’s vibrant, dynamic, and growing economy and also in terms of higher education, which is providing greater connectivity between curriculum in Vietnam and Western Australia, so we can build the opportunities.
These three sectors are all underpinned by direct aviation connections. We know that international students like to have a direct aviation link as part of their choice of university, so that’s an important part as well. But also, we know that direct flights are an important part of growing the people-to-people ties and of providing opportunities for business to form partnerships.
The visit is an important opportunity for business and organizations in Western Australia to come to Vietnam to listen, to understand, and to build relationships; less so transactions and contracts. We know those will flow from good conversations and friendships. And so the key opportunity here is for 30 businesses to be able to come here, engage with industry partners, understand what the challenges and the opportunities are, and then seek to use relationships that they create here on this mission to build transactions in the future.
Western Australia is positioning itself as a “State of Energy.” What role does it see itself playing in supporting Vietnam’s energy transition and energy security?
Our “State of Energy” campaign highlights two very important things. Firstly, that we have great resources and energy capabilities in Western Australia. We have used those resources to build strong, reliable supply-side partnerships, particularly in the area of LNG, which is an important fuel as countries go through an energy transition.
However, “State of Energy” also describes the vibrancy and dynamism of the Western Australian economy and our people. And we know that there are huge opportunities to engage between one of the most dynamic and growing economies in Southeast Asia, which is the Vietnamese economy, and one of the strongest and fastest-growing economies in Australia, which is the Western Australian economy. And we believe that a “State of Energy” aptly describes the opportunities that are in front of us.
I think around 37 per cent of Vietnam’s energy currently comes from coal, so we need to look at ways to introduce new forms of energy to replace coal-fired power. We want to reduce emissions and transition our energy grids.
The opportunities are around renewable energy and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to firm up and support renewable energy. LNG is also likely to play an important role. We have had conversations with companies about opportunities to export Western Australian LNG. There is already some trade, but it’s mainly in the spot market rather than through long-term offtake agreements.
Ultimately, we would like to partner with Vietnam as both our countries or, in my case, my state undertake a clean energy transition, sharing technology and experience along the way.
Vietnam has an advantage that we are quite envious of: around 50 per cent of its energy comes from hydropower. Western Australia, by contrast, has very limited potential for hydropower because we have very few hills and little rainfall.
Western Australia exports significant volumes of agriculture commodities to Vietnam. Where do you see the next stage of this relationship?
We already have significant links through our grain and cereal crops, particularly wheat. We also see great opportunities in fresh produce as well, particularly now we have direct flight connections. We have also had good conversations with Vietnamese businesses about the opportunities to collaborate in poultry farming, for instance. So we will continue to make sure that we build on what the strong ties we already have around our traditional crops and products, and to look to see how we can diversify the range of products that come to Vietnam from Western Australia, especially taking advantage of those direct aviation links.
Vietnam increasingly needs engineers and technicians for the energy, advanced manufacturing, and technology industries. How could Western Australia’s universities and vocational training providers respond to these workforce needs?
I think there’s a huge opportunity in this regard. We have already deployed a lot of technical and further education or vocational education and training curriculum into Vietnam. But we think there are huge opportunities around vocational education and training and higher education in terms of students traveling from Vietnam to study in Western Australia and also education institutions bringing some of their skills and teaching capabilities to Vietnam.
Vietnam needs workers and the skills at the schools around the country. We have a very strong education system, particularly in higher education, that can assist Vietnam equip its young people with the skills they need to meet the incredible ambitions your government have for growth and prosperity. I believe Western Australia can play an important part in that.
How does Vietnam fit into Western Australia’s broader trade and investment strategy in Southeast Asia? What is the state government doing to encourage local companies to invest in Vietnam?
Vietnam is an important place. So we brought companies from Western Australia to give them more confidence about engaging in the market and to look at the opportunities for investment.
I am delighted to see that a number of those companies are now looking to see how they can further the relationships they have here in Vietnam, to see how they can continue to grow those partnerships through direct investment. We worked with the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee around formalizing an agreement that will allow us to provide for a more comprehensive partnership, which I think would facilitate more direct investment in that context.
I think critical minerals or mining more generally is our strength in Western Australia. It’s something we do really well. So, I think mining, mining engineering, and technical services could be a real opportunity for companies to base themselves here.
In addition, we could potentially expand opportunities in agriculture, but I think we have a lot to learn from Vietnam when it comes to food processing and value addition. In some of the meetings I have had the honor of being involved in we discussed how we can bring greater technical resources into food processing to add value to those products. You do that really well, whereas we don’t do it very well. So, there’s certainly something for us to learn from Vietnam.
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