Southern hub seeks support from UK

At the event, the host stressed that the visit of UK Secretary of State for International Trade opens up more cooperation opportunities for both sides' enterprises, contributing to increasing the bilateral trade revenue and furthering their good friendship in the coming time. He noted that the city's leaders highly valued experience and competence of UK enterprises and hoped to receive more support from the UK government, especially in building a smart city or managing the investment cooperative mode of Public–Private Partnership (PPP). In addition, the host affirmed that the city would always welcome and create favorable conditions for UK businesses to invest in building traffic infrastructure, healthcare services, and education or developing an e-government and a smart city.

For his part, the guest said that Vietnam is one of the UK's preferential partners and the bilateral ties still have much potential to develop, which would offer mutual benefits to both countries' enterprises and people. Having hailed the strong and dynamic growth of the city and the whole country, he said that the UK's government is willing to support the Vietnamese city for the development of an e-government and a smart urban city in the time to come.

The UK now ranks 12^th among 86 countries and territories investing in the Vietnam's Southern hub. It is also a big trade partner of the city, with two-way trade value reaching USD 826 million in 2016. Its business association currently has 450 representing offices in the Vietnamese city.

Translated by Trung Thanh