HCM City (VNA) –Representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee and Japan’s Hyogoprefecture held a conference in Vietnam’s southern economic hub on November 2to look for ways to promote the economic cooperation between the twolocalities.
The function, the second ofits kind, drew the participation of representatives of nearly 150 enterprisesfrom both countries.
Opening the conference,Permanent Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Le ThanhLiem stressed that during its development, the city has been calling forcooperation and investment from foreign countries, especially Japan, to thefields the city is in need such as industrial production, high technology, seaportservices, high-tech agriculture, and human resources training, among others.
Expressing his belief thatthe cooperation potential between the two localities is still large in variousfields, Liem said he hoped that in the time to come, Hyogo firms will intensifytheir cooperation with those from Ho Chi Minh City. The official affirmed thatthe municipal authorities will facilitate, go along and support firms fromJapan in general and Hyogo in particular for their stable, long-term andeffective operation in the city.
Besides, Liem said heexpects Hyogo authorities will welcome Ho Chi Minh City firms to come andexplore the investment and business environment in the Japanese prefecture,thus bringing prosperity to businesses and people of the two localities.
For his part, Hyogo GovernorIdo Toshizo spoke highly of the potential and competitive advantages of Vietnamin the economic development, especially its political stability and abundant humanresources. The governor stressed that through this conference, the prefecturehopes Vietnamese firms will develop their investment and business in Hyogo,along with the continuation of labour cooperation programmes.
At the conference, companiesof the two localities were briefed on the socio-economic situation, investmentattraction policies, and economic development prospects of the two sides.
Since 1998, Japan has had1,240 investment and business projects in Ho Chi Minh City with a combinedcapital of over 4 billion USD, ranking 5th among about 100 countriesand territories investing in Ho Chi Minh City. Hyogo firms have 34 projects inthe city, focusing in the fields of science and technology, logistics, tradeand services. The prefecture is now home to about 15,000 Vietnamese and about30 percent of foreign students in Hyogo are Vietnamese.-VNA