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Secretary of HCMC Party’s Committee Nguyen Van Nen is discussing economic matters with French businesses (Photo: SGGP) |
Secretary of HCMC Party’s Committee Nguyen Van Nen shared that in the 50-year diplomatic relationship and the 10-year strategic partnership between Vietnam and France, both have collaborated well in the fields of politics, economy, culture, education, and technology.
At present, France is Vietnam’s leading trading partner in EU, with an average two-way trade turnover growth of over 15 percent per year in the 2011-2020. After the Covid-19 pandemic, trading activities between the two countries have positively recovered to reach US$5.3 billion in 2022.
After the pandemic, HCMC is focusing on its economic restructuring, infrastructure improvement, and urban development to become a multi-center, green, and smart city with a balance between urban and rural growth. Therefore, planning for service economy along Saigon River has entered its priority list.
MEDEF’s Chairman Francois Corbin commented that Vietnam is a highly potential and strategic market in Asia, so French businesses are paying great attention to this market for chances of mutual development. He praised the renovations in Vietnam to achieve such an encouraging economic growth rate regardless of negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has turned the country into one extremely suitable candidate for value chain shift in Asia.
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HCMC’s authorities are exchanging ideas with François Corbin, Chairman of the Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF) (Photo: SGGP) |
Displaying a strong support and great confidence in cooperation opportunities between the two nations, French enterprises hoped that Vietnam’s Government, especially HCMC’s authorities, creates favorable conditions for them to do business successfully in this lucrative market.
HCMC Party Chief stated that the visit of the city to France this time is to learn valuable experience about planning economic activities along the banks of Seine River to apply to Saigon River. He promised to offer suitable conditions for foreign companies, including French ones, to invest in trading activities in HCMC. Meanwhile, the city is going to improve its investment environment to welcome businesspeople from all over the world.
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In the framework of HCMC’s delegation to France, there was a working session yesterday with Nicolas Bauquet, Director of Paris Planning Institute, and experts there.
Stating that these professionals have deep understanding about Vietnam after their consulting project for Hanoi Construction Planning, Secretary Nguyen Van Nen expressed his hope that Paris Planning Institute can propose feasible ideas on the planning of embankment and service economy development along Saigon River.
He expected that the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the HCMC Department of Planning and Architecture and the Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture (PUCA) becomes a framework to boost the growth of sustainable urban projects, including the development of the service economy on both banks of Saigon River.
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The Memorandum of Understanding signed between the HCMC Department of Planning and Architecture and the Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture (PUCA) is expected to become a framework to boost the growth of sustainable urban projects (Photo: SGGP) |
After a brief report of the HCMC Department of Planning and Architecture about the current status and development orientation of Saigon River as well as HCMC’s master planning, both partners discussed possible ideas for HCMC to develop its port infrastructure and economy along Saigon River.
Sharing experience when developing proper planning for Seine River, Director Nicolas Bauquet expressed his love for Vietnam and his availability to provide support and consultation to the planning of Saigon River and the city’s planning in general.
Concluding the meeting, the HCMC Party Chief stressed that the help of leading experts in Paris Planning Institute will bring about new practical ideas for the economic growth of Saigon River’s banks via taking better advantage of the river’s natural potential for tourism, culture and sports activities.
