Flag raising ceremony marks VN’s National Day in Australia

A flag raising ceremony was held in Parramatta city of Australia’s New South Wales on Sept. 4 to mark Vietnam’s 65th National Day (Sept. 2).

Addressing the event, Parramatta City Mayor Paul Garrard highlighted the Vietnamese community’s contributions to the city and Australia as a whole.

The mayor shared his pride to join the Vietnamese people in their National Day, confirming that Vietnam and Australia are exerting their efforts for peace, prosperity and development in the country and the region.

He expressed his admiration at the achievements of the people of Vietnam and Parramatta’s sister city of Vung Tau in the national industrialisation and modernisation.

Since Parramatta, the first city of Australia, inked friendship agreement with Vung Tau 17 years ago, Parramatta has constantly promoted sponsorship programmes for Vung Tau.

For his part, Vietnamese consul general to Sydney Vu Hong Nam stated that the annual flag-raising ceremony on Vietnam’s National Day is a vivid symbol of the friendship between Vietnam and Australia . He said he believed the two cities will have various forms of cooperation to bring their ties to a new height.

There are about 300,000 Vietnamese people in Australia, including 140,000 people in New South Wales.

Australia is the seventh biggest trade partner and the fourth largest importer of Vietnam. By 2009, it had around 200 investment projects totalling 1.2 billion USD in the Southeast Asian country.

There are an estimated 24,000 Vietnamese students studying in Australia and 14,000 others studying at Australian education centres in Vietnam.

Vietnam received about 210,000 Australian tourists last year./.