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Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan (R) and Deputy Mayor of the City of Tampere (Finland) Ilkka Sasi |
At the meeting with the Deputy Mayor of the City of Tampere, Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan shared about HCMC's socio-economic situation.
Mr. Hoan emphasized that Ho Chi Minh City is the country’s economic hub with 500,000 businesses, accounting for nearly half of the country's businesses, contributing one-third of the country's budget revenue, accounting for one-fourth of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Ho Chi Minh City is set to build a smart urban area, a regional innovation center in association with digital economic development and green growth.
Vice Chairman Hoan highly appreciated educational cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and Finland through many cooperation projects between schools which is expected to be expanded and developed further.
Regarding the field of information technology, Mr. Vo Van Hoan introduced to Deputy Mayor of the City of Tampere Quang Trung Software Park (QTSC) and Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP), which have lured hundreds of the world's leading technology enterprises, including chip manufacturer Intel Corporation.
Mr. Vo Van Hoan affirmed that HCMC will have preferential policies for foreign investors, including Finnish investors in the fields of information technology, chip production and artificial intelligence (AI) and so on.
For the side of Finnish, Deputy Mayor of the City of Tampere Ilkka Sasi introduced to Ho Chi Minh City leaders the city of Tampere, which is Finland's third largest city with a population of 400,000 people and the home of Nokia phones.
The visit to Ho Chi Minh City is to seek more opportunities to expand educational and vocational training cooperation programs, business and investment opportunities in the fields of AI and smart cities, added Mr. Ilkka Sasi.
The city of Tampere has concentrated on the development of information technology as well as desired to promote cooperation between the two cities in this field.
According to him, Finland is a member of the Vietnam - European Union Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) which is a good condition for the country to further promote trade and investment in Vietnam.
At another meeting with the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade of Ontario, Mr. Vo Van Hoan praised the robust development of Vietnam-Canada relations and announced the positive results from the HCMC working delegation’s visits to Vancouver and Toronto led by him two months ago with many memorandums of cooperation between Canadian and Ho Chi Minh City businesses.
Mr. Vo Van Hoan thanked the Vietnam-Canada business community for the donation of ambulances, fire trucks and ten scholarships to HCMC and appreciated the Canadian Government for choosing Vietnam as one of the three priority countries to promote trade and investment.
With strengths in growing, producing and processing wood, Ontario is expected to cooperate with Ho Chi Minh City.
Along with its strength in the health sector, Ontario can promote cooperation with Ho Chi Minh City to develop the pharmaceutical industry and vaccine research and manufacture.
Additionally, Deputy Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Vo Van Hoan desired more investment and experience sharing of investors from Ontario in fields of information technology, AI, digital transformation and so on with the ultimate target of application in life in accordance with Ho Chi Minh City’s conditions.
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Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan talks with Mr. Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade of Ontario, Canada. |
Mr. Vo Van Hoan proposed that Ho Chi Minh City and Ontario should consider signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
Mr. Vic Fedeli said that the official visit to Ho Chi Minh City took place on the occasion of marking the 50th anniversary of Vietnam-Canada diplomatic relations, affirming that the relationship between the two countries would be more and more developed, notably in the field of trade with a strong growth and more development potentials.
Minister Vic Fedeli was very proud of Ontario’s enterprises doing business in Vietnam and informed that 120,000 Vietnamese Canadians have bridged and motivated the bilateral cooperation.
At the meeting, Minister Vic Fedeli agreed with the proposal of widening the cooperation programs with Ho Chi Minh City in the fields of vaccine research and production, professional training, wastewater treatment, green energy and trade exchange.
Besides, he desired to deepen the relationship at the governmental level, the business community and people-to-people diplomacy.
