HCM City keen to step up connections with Australia
VOV.VN - Vice Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and Chairwoman of the municipal People’s Council Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam has told Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Tony Smith that the City wishes to beef up mutually beneficial cooperation with his nation in potential fields.
At a July 25 reception for the Australian House Speaker, Tam highlighted his visit to Vietnam as a contribution to boosting stronger cooperation between the two nations.
As a leading locality in external affairs and cooperation with foreign countries, Ho Chi Minh City has launched a broad range of friendship programmes with Australia as well as practical activities across education and training, investment, tourism, and culture, the municipal leader said.
She updated her guest on the city’s socio-economic development, noting that in addition to the tremendous achievements, the metropolitan area still faces some challenges in its urban development process such as traffic congestion, environmental pollution, and inundation.
Tam suggested Tony Smith continue fostering the relationship between the city and Australia, particularly in areas of both sides’ strengths while intensifying people-to-people exchange and sharing experience in the fields of shared concern.
The Australian guest expressed his elation at the sound Vietnam-Australia relations as a result of strengthened high-level exchanges, and friendship activities in politics, foreign affairs, economics, and people-to-people diplomacy.
Smith’s first visit to Vietnam as the Australian Speaker of the House of Representatives is designed to push up cooperative ties between the two legislative bodies, thereby consolidating and developing the friendship between the two countries.
Besides investment and tourism, education also boasts huge potential for further cooperation, he said, citing that more than 1,500 Australian students have pursued their study and research in Vietnam since 2014.
Meanwhile, numerous Vietnamese students have studied and worked in Australia and they serve as a friendship bridge boosting the friendship between the two countries, he emphasized.
Smith also pledged his best efforts to promote the Vietnam-Australia strategic partnership through cooperative programmes and delegation exchange.