HCM City (VNA) - President of the Council of State and Council of Ministersof Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez and his entourage visited the SaigonHi-Tech Park of Ho Chi Minh City on November 10 as part of their officialfriendship visit to Vietnam.

Welcomingthe delegation, head of the Management Board of the Saigon Hi-Tech Park Le HoaiQuoc said that after 16 years of operation, the park has granted investmentlicences to 148 projects, including 93 domestic and 55 foreign-invested ones.

Totalhi-tech production of the park has reached nearly 45 billion USD with therising trend. In 2018, the figure is estimated to hit 14 billion USD and isexpected to exceed 20 billion USD in 2020.

Quoc saidthat the park has started its second phase to match the city’s developmentorientations to become a creative city by fusing on completing a renovationecosystem.

Enterprisesplanning to invest in the park must be committed to investing in research anddevelopment and implement a roadmap to localise the supply chain, said Quoc.

Miguel Diaz-Canel inquiredabout issues related to the investment model of the park, legal matters inconstruction and investment in the park as well as criteria for a hi-techenterprise.

He saidthat Cuba has approved a policy to develop high-tech parks but the country hasyet to build a sufficient legal foundation in the field. Meanwhile, Cuba hasyet to give specific standards for a hi-tech firm or product, especially in itsstrong biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, he added.

The Cuban leadersaid that Cuba sees Vietnam as a model to follow and learn experiences from,expressing his belief to that Vietnam, with strong political trust and traditionalfriendship with Cuba, is a trustworthy destination for Cuba to study.

Hesuggested that in the coming time, the park send a working team to Cuba at aconvenient time to share experiences with the Caribbean country and work with anumber of centres that Cuba is to form, including an IT centre and ascience-technology centre in Havana University and other biotechnology andpharmaceutical centres of Cuba.

The Cubanleader also proposed that representatives from the biotechnology sector of Cubaand the Saigon Hi-Tech Park work directly with each other to seek opportunitiesto form a joint venture or implement a joint research to developpharmaceuticals in the park.

Currently,Cuba has succeeded in producing specific remedies and vaccines, but the countryhas faced difficulties in medicine production due to low capacity of factories,he noted, holding that this is a chance for the two sides to cooperate inproducing medicines in Vietnam.-VNA