He made the statement at a meeting with Vietnamese Ambassador to the State of Kuwait Ngo Toan Thang while the Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly delegation led by Deputy Head of the city National Assembly delegation Van Thi Bach Tuyet visited Kuwait.
Accordingly, the delegation visited and worked with the Vietnamese Embassy in Kuwait. Ambassador Ngo Toan Thang and his colleagues received the delegation. At the meeting, Ambassador Ngo Toan Thang told the delegation about the relationship between Vietnam and Kuwait.
According to the Ambassador, Vietnam and Kuwait established diplomatic relations in 1976 and the Vietnam Trade Office in Kuwait was set up in 1993. Until 2003, the Vietnamese Embassy was established in Kuwait. By 2022, trade between the two countries reached US$5.5 billion thanks to increased exports of many Vietnamese seafood, garments, electronics, agricultural products, wooden furniture to Kuwait. Moreover, about 400 Vietnamese workers have been working in Kuwait, mainly skilled workers in the fields of aviation, oil and gas, construction, and beauty.
Ambassador Ngo Toan Thang also highly appreciated Ho Chi Minh City - the place hosting the International Tourism Fair - ITE event; At the same time, he affirmed that he will strongly promote the above event to businesses in Kuwait.
Head of the Inspection Commission of the HCMC Party Committee Duong Ngoc Hai talked about an overview of the southern largest city’s socio-economic development in 2023. Ho Chi Minh City's socio-economic situation continues to have a strong recovery after the Covid-19 epidemic with the strong growth of the industry, transport and tourism sectors. The tourism industry also saw a recovery with 5 million international visitors. Additionally, city authorities also take heed of fighting against unemployment amongst workers.
However, according to Mr. Hai, the city will also face many difficulties in 2023; for instance, a decrease in city budget revenue, the low disbursement rate of public investment capital, and a sharp decline in import-export and investment sectors.
According to Mr. Duong Ngoc Hai, the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee has identified the causes for the above-mentioned difficulties, such as the impacts of the world economic downturn resulting in no orders and businesses having difficulty in consuming their products.
In the face of the difficulties, the city has many solutions, such as setting up working groups to inspect and monitor projects to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital in addition to setting up a working group to remove difficulties for businesses while finding solutions to expand the domestic market.
Emphasizing the National Assembly’s Resolution 98/2023/QH15 on piloting a number of specific policies and mechanisms to develop Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Duong Ngoc Hai affirmed that Ho Chi Minh City authorities are determined to synchronously implement many solutions to effectively carry out the above resolution.
Ho Chi Minh City hopes that the Resolution 98 will continue to help Ho Chi Minh City maintain its position as the economic leader of the country. In particular, Ho Chi Minh City focuses on strongly developing the field of transportation, urban infrastructure improvement, logistics, digital transformation, and science - technology. He pointed out some major projects such as the Belt Road 3, the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai Expressway, the Can Gio international transshipment port; urban railway lines, and the International Finance Center project that Ho Chi Minh City is implementing the special Resolution.
With the specific policy for Ho Chi Minh City and the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and Kuwait, he hoped Ambassador Ngo Toan Thang and colleagues to continue to promote cooperation programs between the two countries, especially supporting businesses in Ho Chi Minh City to access the Kuwait market and connect labor exports, especially skilled workers to work in Kuwait.
