Ho Chi Minh City and the Chinese localities on the banks of the Yellow River boast much room for economic, trade, and investment cooperation thanks to cultural similarities and complementary goods structures, heard a conference held in the Vietnamese city on March 11.

Giving a brief introduction of his province, Vice Governor Song Junji said Shandong is an economically large province on the eastern coast of China and home to rich resources. Its economic size ranks third in China while its industrial production value is over 1 trillion CNY (nearly 139.2 billion USD) to top the country. It is the fifth biggest destination of foreign investment, accounting for 11% of the total in China.

Meanwhile, he noted, HCM City is the largest economic hub of Vietnam that posts fast-growing trade, information technology, culture, and tourism and holds considerable potential for extensive economic partnerships with the provinces in the Yellow River basin and China at large.

The goods structures of Vietnam and China are highly complementary to each other. For the past many years, China has continually been the biggest trading partner of Vietnam, which in turn respectively ranks fourth and first among trading partners of China in the world and ASEAN, according to Song.

He added that the conference, held by the People’s Government of Shandong, aimed to form a foundation for boosting trade ties between the Yellow River localities (including Shandong, Shanxi, and Qinghai) and HCM City to expand bilateral trade in farm produce, garment, footwear, and electronic products, among others.

Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Van Dung said his city attaches importance to the cooperation with Chinese localities.

China is currently one of the biggest trading partners of HCM City, and has invested over 303 million USD in 590 projects to rank 17th among the 122 countries and territories directly investing here, he said.

HCM City welcomes and wishes to enhance cooperation with Shandong and those on the banks of the Yellow River in the fields matching strength and demand of the two countries, such as construction, healthcare, education, culture, tourism, digital economy, and green economy, the official stated.

In addition, Dung went on, HCM City is working to become a smart city and build a regional logistics hub. During this process, apart from its own efforts, it hopes Shandong and the others will increase importing the goods HCM City is strong at, and encourage their businesses boasting science - technology and innovation advantages to invest in HCM City.

HCM City pledges to continue improving the local investment climate to provide the best possible conditions for foreign firms, including those from Shandong and those located besides the Yellow River, to make investment, the Vice Chairman remarked.

Wei Huaxiang, Chinese Consul General in HCM City, said Shandong has long maintained sound cooperation with southern localities of Vietnam, including HCM City.

Many renowned businesses of Shandong have invested in HCM City while the number of direct flights between the city and the Yellow River localities has almost doubled, showing their huge cooperation potential expected to be expanded and benefit both sides, he added.

VNA