HCM City seeks to expand economic cooperation with US
Ho Chi Minh City wishes US businesses to continue investing in the city in areas that suit both the city's interest and the businesses' strengths such as building deep-water ports, transport infrastructure, digital transformation and clean energy.
Ngo Minh Chau, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee made the suggestion at a reception on October 20 for Whitney Baird, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the US Department of State, who is on a visit to the city.
The official expressed his delight at the strong development of the Vietnam-US relationship and their extensive and substantive cooperation.
The US and Vietnam have been each other's important trading partner, he said, noting that the US currently has more than 500 investment projects worth US$1.3 billion in the city, ranking 10th among countries and territories investing in the locality. The North American country is the city's top trading partner with a total two-way trade turnover of US$4.4 billion in the first six months of this year.
However, he said, the economic cooperation between HCM City and the US has not met the potential and desire of both sides.
Chau voiced his hope that there will be more specific projects between the US and city partners to fulfill their cooperative potential.
For her part, Baird highly appreciated the collaboration between the US and HCM City on customs clearance of goods traded between the two countries after her visit to Cat Lai port.
She affirmed that the US Government always wants to diversify the supply of goods so it will pay attention to the city's proposal on cooperation in this field.
As climate change is seriously affecting people's life and demand for clean and green energy sources is on rise, the US wishes to further expand investment and business cooperation of US enterprises in HCM City in this regard, Baird said.