Victoria is dedicated to developing strong international connections and capability. We are Australia's Education State. Our students are supported to learn other languages from an early age. Our universities have established campuses around the world and welcome large numbers of international students here in Victoria each year. Our industries are equipped with skills and knowledge through targeted scholarships and programs.
Formal partnerships for shared prosperity
Across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, formal partnerships connect Victoria with leading economies and institutions and provide a shared path to tangible outcomes and mutual prosperity.
Victoria’s ambition and expertise in international engagement is demonstrated in our track-record of seizing opportunities to cooperate and collaborate. We develop productive agreements to grow together, including as an early partner with emerging economies around the world.
Formal partnerships also allow Victoria’s world-class universities and research institutes to share knowledge and make meaningful progress on shared challenges. Collaborations between our flourishing creative sector and international partners help to bring the best of our arts and culture to a global audience, building connections that bring us closer together.
Dynamic universities and medical research institutes
Our universities are highly capable leaders in international engagement, with many establishing overseas campuses and partnering to deliver programs abroad.
Victorian medical research organisations pursue ambitious agendas as leaders in our region, using world-class skill and expertise to address a range of pressing health issues. With a state-of-the-art vaccine manufacturing facility within Monash University, Victoria will strengthen its position as a world leader in the new frontier of medical research and manufacture.
Precincts that co-locate Victorian research, industry and clinical care expertise foster new discoveries, commercialisation opportunities, and translational outcomes that benefit patients, consumers, and communities around the world.
Victoria is also home to the largest number of World Health Organization Collaborating Centres of any Australian state or territory, further recognition of the concentrated health, clinical and medical research expertise in the state.
This vibrant research and clinical sector allows Victoria to unite effort across the supply chain: researching, investing, trialling, and manufacturing all in the one place.
Melbourne is one of only 3 cities in the world to have 2 universities in the global top 20 biomedical rankings, with Monash University regularly ranked in the world’s top 2 for pharmaceutical sciences.
Meaningful engagement through advanced capabilities
Victoria is a highly capable knowledge partner, committed to creating enduring and meaningful relationships with our neighbours. In addition to our world-class universities and research capabilities, Victoria is home to several of the Indo-Pacific’s leading think tanks.
Asia Society Australia, an independent global organisation dedicated to deepening Australia’s understanding of Asia, has its headquarters in Melbourne. It drives the creation of contemporary connections and networks in the region and builds on Melbourne’s reputation as Australia’s gateway to Asia.
This is further deepened through the Asia Trade and Innovation Hub, a physical and digital gateway for engagement with Asia. Located in the Melbourne central business district campus of RMIT University, the Hub seeks to cultivate greater understanding and connectivity with the region.
Asialink, Australia’s leading centre for creative engagement with Asia, develops insights, capabilities, and connections through programs in the arts, business, and education.
Connecting the Education State to the world
Victoria’s school system is highly regarded for its commitment to global learning and engagement opportunities for students. Education fosters curiosity about the world and equips students with the skills they need to live and work in the global community.
Interactive learning opportunities such as Global Youth and Emerging Leader Forums enable Victorian students to collaborate with overseas peers. Connections are also fostered through hosting international delegations and sister school partnerships that support joint curriculum projects, sharing of knowledge and practices, and student and teacher exchanges.
Victoria maintains extensive alumni, researcher, and professional networks, building and sustaining long-term cultural connections and partnership opportunities around the world.
Victoria is forecast to be Australia’s fastest growing economy to 2028. Deloitte Access Economics forecasts that Victoria’s Gross State Product (GSP) will outpace all Australian states and territories over the five years to 2027-28.
Two-way trade has grown by 50% over the past 5 years.
Exports have grown by 21% over the past 5 years.
Victorian Government Trade and Investment office locations
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