Osaka (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City organised aconference in Osaka city on April 13 to promote its investment and tourismpartnership with the Kansai region of Japan.
At the event, standing Vice Chairman of the HCMCity People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem said Japan is a big trade partner of thesouthern economic hub of Vietnam with trade approximating 5 billion USD in2016.
Japan is also the fourth largest investor in thecity with more than 1,000 projects worth 3.55 billion USD. Many projects areinvested by major firms from Osaka such as Panasonic, Kintetsu, Matsushita,Sharp and Sanyo.
Liem called for Japanese businesses, especiallythose in the Kansai region, to invest in transport infrastructure, health careand human resources development, which are also the strengths of Japan andOsaka prefecture.
Expressing the willingness to invest in Vietnam,Masayuki Matsushita – a vice chairman of the Kansai Economic Federation – saidup to 20 percent of Japanese firms investing in Vietnam are from the Kansairegion.
At the meeting, Vietnamese and Japaneseenterprises shared information about HCM City’s economic situation, investmentattraction policy and tourism potential, and discussed cooperation in thosefields.
A memorandum of understanding on tourismdevelopment cooperation was signed between the HCM City Department of Tourismand the culture, sports and tourism division of Osaka city’s Economic StrategyBureau. Accordingly, the two cities will coordinate to organise promotionalprogrammes, facilitate tourism exchanges, and share information about theirtourism industry.
Earlier, Secretary of the municipal PartyCommittee Dinh La Thang and other officials of HCM City met with businessassociations of Kansai so as to enhance bilateral economic links.-VNA