Prime Minister Khai, your Excellency, my parliamentary colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Prime Minister, in welcoming you to this luncheon on behalf of the Australian Government and the Australian people, let me remark immediately that the fundamental reality of our relationship is that there are 200,000 Australians of Vietnamese heritage, there are 100,000 Australian tourists to Vietnam each year and there are 4,000 Vietnamese students studying in Australia.
Those figures provide the relationship with a very rich people-to-people base, not available to other bilateral relationships that Australia enjoys. Australia is Vietnam's fourth largest export market and the two-way trade between our two countries in 2004 was valued at $3.7 billion Australian dollars. I mention these figures because I do not believe that the full extent of the relationship which they described is as well known and appreciated in the Australian community as it should be and certainly not as well appreciated within the Vietnamese community in Vietnam, as it should be. Australians of Vietnamese descent have made an energetic and very valuable contribution to the modern Australia. They are fine citizens, greatly appreciated by their fellow Australians.
Prime Minister our talks today have focused on the future on ways in which our economic association can be deepened and ways in which we can cooperate to respond to the common challenges of our region. Those challenges are terrorism, transnational crime, health challenges such as Avian Influenza and also people smuggling.
We are partners in APEC and in that respect I have offered on behalf of Australia and you have accepted help in relation to the organisation of the APEC meeting in 2006 and Australia would be willing to cooperate and provide assistance in anyway we can to make that meeting in your country a great success.
I appreciate the remarks that you have made today about Australia's involvement in the East Asian community. Australia is an active and unrestrained regional participant, a country anxious to play its part in association with all the other nations of the region.
And Prime Minister this gathering includes many people from business and from university life who have made in the past what I could call an early investment in the strengthening relationship between our two countries. We should not pretend of course that the approach of our two countries to the affairs... the approach of our two countries to the affairs of the world is always the same. Our political institutions are different. However, as always in international relations, it's important to focus on those things that we have in common and we can constructively improve.
And that takes me back to the commencement of my speech, the people-to-people links are so deep and so strong that there is every reason to believe that the relationship between our two countries will grow and broaden as the years go by.
Prime Minister you are most welcome, this is your second visit as Prime Minister, your third visit in total and I hope that you are, as I believe you should be, warmly received by the Australian people.
I now invite the Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable Kim Beazley to support my remarks.