At the reception, Mr. Phong said Vietnam-Hong Kong have achieved many postive results in recent years. In 2017, two way trade btween Vietnam and Hong Kong reached US$ 17.5 bilion, including a US$3,5 billion trade value with HCMC. Hong Kong has now 452 investment projects in Vietnam worth US$ 2.7 billion, ranked 7th out of 96 countries and territories investing in HCMC.

Mentioning aobut the city’s development direction, Mr. Phong said that the city is now implementing the project of building smart city and Resolution 54 of the National Assembly politing speical policies to bolster growth the city. This will help the city attract more foreig investors, including those from Hong Kong.

It is the city’s plan to built a financial center to atttract more investment resources. Mr. Phong expressed his hope that Hong Kong would share its experience in managing and running the financial center as well in other fields of its strengths.

According to Mr. Nhan, in its development process, the city focuses on mobilizing internal strengths and attracting external ones. The city always makes efforts to create the most favorable conditions for foreign investors, considering their success as its own.

For his part, Mr. Edward Yau expressed his condolences to the family of former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, the Party and people of Vietnam. He said Hong Kong and Vietnam has established cooperation relations for a long time, Vietnam is always an important trade partner of Hong Kong. With a role of linking point in the “One Belt One Road” Initiative of China, Hong Kong wishes to strengthen cooperation relations with other countries in the region, including Vietnam, espeically in the context of completion of Hong Kong – ASEAN FTA which takes effect in January 1 2019. According to Mr. Edward Yau, this working visit to HCMC accompanied by big companies aims to seek investment opportunities and to promote production in the city. This is a good opportunity for businesses of Hong Kong and HCMC to study cooperation and investment opporuntiies, strengthening trade exchange.  He affirmed that Hong Kong is willing to share its experience and to strengthen cooperation with Vietnam in general and HCMC in paticular in fields that Hong Kong has strengths like legal consultancy, finance, insurance, service, construction, tourism and smart city, etc.

HCM CITYWEB