At the reception, Mr. Le Thanh Liem expressed his delight at receiving a delegation of AIIB as well as welcoming the delegation to the World Economic Forum 2018 on ASEAN in Hanoi.

According to Mr. Liem, although HCMC is now an economic locomotive of the whole country, but the city is facing challenges such as climate change, landslide, high tide, flooding, traffic congestion, environmental pollution, waste treatment. To deal with these issues, in the period of 2015-2020, the city has worked out 7 breakthrough programs related to flooding, traffic congestion and accident, environmental pollution, etc.

He said that the city now calls for investment in some key projects: overpass, tramway, monorail, industrial waste treatment, centers under smart urban project, etc. In order to carry out these projects, the city has proposed the Government to allow it to borrow money by itself.

Mr. Liem added the city is now focusing on promoting smart urban development, creative urban area toward Industry 4.0. To do this, the city needs to develop infrastructure system. Therefore, the city hopes to have AIIB participating into these projects under form of PPP to help improve the city’s infrastructure and improve living standard of local citizens.

Mr. Joachim Von Amsberg highly appreciated initiatives and proposals of HCMC, saying AIIB is now focusing on projects in fields of transport, energy, environment. Some financial mechanisms related to urban development which are implemented by AIIB include sovereign loans, non-sovereign loans, loans for enterprises and private sectors through commercial banks or direct loans. He also added that AIIB will work with related departments of agencies of the city to carry out some projects in the future, supporting the city by flexible loans to implement projects, he also expressed his hope to contribute capital to the city’s infrastructure projects.

HCM CITYWEB