Ho Chi Minh City Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang met British Ambassador Iain Frew and Indian Consul General Vipra Pandey today to discuss expanding cooperation in finance, transport infrastructure, technology and education.
At the meeting, the British Ambassador said strategic projects in finance, energy and transport infrastructure continued to attract strong investor interest due to the city's potential.
He said the development orientation of the Vietnam International Financial Center (VIFC), along with related regulations and legal frameworks, would attract significant attention. According to Iain Frew, Britain is ready to support training human resources for the VIFC based on its existing strengths.
On transport infrastructure, the British side expressed interest in urban railway projects in Ho Chi Minh City. The British government is prepared to provide loans for the city’s urban railway projects.
Britain also hopes to further strengthen cooperation with Ho Chi Minh City in education and people-to-people exchanges.
HCMC Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang said Ho Chi Minh City was paying close attention to the issues raised by Iain Frew. He noted that Resolution No. 09-NQ/TW on the construction and development of Ho Chi Minh City in a new era includes plans to formulate and promulgate a Special Urban Law, which is expected to create an outstanding legal framework to unlock resources and reassure investors.
He said the city expected the VIFC to become a major driver of development and therefore wanted to study and learn from effective management models such as the London financial district in order to strengthen competitiveness against regional financial centers such as Shanghai and Singapore.
The HCMC Party Secretary expressed confidence that the two sides would have more practical and effective cooperation projects in the near future.
On the same day, HCMC Secretary Tran Luu Quang also met Vipra Pandey, Indian Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City.
At the meeting, the city Party chief emphasized that the elevation of Vietnam-India relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership had opened a new phase in bilateral cooperation.
For Ho Chi Minh City, alongside traditional areas of cooperation, the city hopes to strengthen ties with India in new sectors including science and technology, software and artificial intelligence.
Indian Consul General Vipra Pandey said that besides defense and security, India also wanted to promote cooperation with Ho Chi Minh City in digital payments, information technology, transport infrastructure and biomedicine.
He added that India would study solutions to further enhance effective bilateral cooperation in the coming period.
