Medical Doctor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, Director of the city’s Vietnam-US Friendship Association chapter spoke of the growing cooperation between the two countries in various fields such as economics, defence, security, culture, education, and training, and healthcare service.

The US is now one of the ten biggest foreign investors in Vietnam, she said, citing that two-way trade between the two countries has amounted to US$18.324 billion.

In 2010 alone, the HUFO and the Vietnam-US Friendship Association chapters received many guests from universities, high schools, non-governmental organizations, and veteran organizations, as well as religious dignitaries who came to Vietnam to promote cooperation in the fields of culture, education, economics, society, humanity, and charity.

Le Thanh An, US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, emphasized the important contributions of the HUFO and Vietnam-US Friendship Association chapters in improving relations between the two countries.

On the occasion, some US NGOs donated as much as US$854 million to two projects to help orphans and disadvantaged children and presented “affection” houses to poor women in Hoc Mon district.