Ho Chi Minh City hopes that bilateral relations with Italian localities will be enhanced to tap both sides’ potential, and will create favorable conditions for Italian businesses and investors in the city, said the municipal People’s Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan.
Chairman Quan made the statement while receiving Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Massimo D’Alema in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.
He said he believed that this visit to Viet Nam by the Italian leader would pave the way for further cooperation between the two countries as well as between HCM City and Italian localities.
Sharing the same view, the Italian Deputy PM said he also wished to bolster cooperative ties between the Italian localities and the southern economic hub of Viet Nam, which he called “a young but fast-growing city.”
Massimo D’Alema said he will leave Viet Nam for India, but the Italian Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Mr. Mauro Agostini, will continue his stay in the city to study investment opportunities here.
His visit to Viet Nam is in preparation for an official visit to the country by the Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, and other Italian businessmen scheduled for next April, D’Alema added.
The same day, the Italian Deputy PM and his entourage visited the Cu Chi tunnels and met with Italian expatriates living and working in the city.
During the first leg of their visit to Viet Nam, the Italian delegation met with Vietnamese leaders in Ha Noi. The Italian Embassy in Ha Noi and the Italian Trade Commission in Ho Chi Minh City co-sponsored a workshop titled “Infrastructure and Industrial Development: Opportunities for Vietnamese-Italian Cooperation” on Monday.
The Italian delegation also witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony of a Piaggio’s factory in Binh Xuyen Industrial Park in Vinh Phuc province, the first of its kind in Viet Nam.
