Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Ngo Minh Chau receives Ms. Whitney Baird, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the US Department of State.
The Vice Chairman of HCMC expressed his joy at the strong development, extensive and substantive cooperation between Vietnam and the US.
The US is currently the largest export market of Vietnam for many while Vietnam becomes the 9th biggest trade partner of the US. In addition, the US is now the 10th largest investor in HCMC, with more than 500 projects worth a total investment capital of US$1.3 billion, and also the largest trading partner of the city. The total trade turnover between HCMC and the US reached nearly US$4.4 billion in the first six months of 2022, he noted.
The city’s leader affirmed that the municipal government will always support and create favorable conditions for foreign investors, including American enterprises to operate their business permanently and effectively. The southern economic hub often has working sessions and exchanges with the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) in HCMC, including a seminar with 20 typical US enterprises investing in the city on May 17.
In July, a high-ranking delegation of HCMC led by Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Phan Van Mai had a working trip to the United States. The visit aims to call on American investors to invest in the priority fields of the city, such as health, infrastructure, digital transformation, green energy, finance, education and training.
For her part, Baird highly appreciated the cooperation on customs clearance facilitation between the US and HCMC after her visit to Cat Lai port.
She hoped that the two nations will have more cooperation projects in the sectors of infrastructure construction and supply chain diversification.
On the other hand, she recognized the collaboration for health between Vietnam and the US during the Covid-19 pandemic and suggested enhancement of coordination for the city's proposed fields
Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Ngo Minh Chau (R) and Minister-President of the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles Pierre-Yves Jeholet
At the receiving ceremony for Minister-President of the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles Pierre-Yves Jeholet who has been on a visit to Vietnam from October 15-21, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Ngo Minh Chau highly appreciated proposals for the cooperation of the French Community of Belgium (Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles), and called on investors from Belgium and the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles to increase investment in HCMC.
For his part, Mr. Pierre-Yves Jeholet said that Belgium and Vietnam officially established diplomatic relations in 1973 while the establishment of bilateral ties between the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles and Vietnam was in 1993.
Besides meetings with Vietnam’s top leaders, his visit to the country aims to mark the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Wallonie-Bruxelle and Vietnam with nearly 800 cooperation projects. The two sides signed 17 new projects in the 2022-2024 period, he added.
