HCM City (VNA) – Secretaryof the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan expressed his wishthat the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will continue support for the city inaddressing issues arising from the urban development.

While receiving Alex Mourmouras, Chief of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department,on March 16, Nhan said HCM City is facing difficulties in preparing capitalresources for urban infrastructure building.

Defining the private sector’s engagement in transport infrastructure developmentas a need, the city wants to get IMF help in organising seminars and studiesrelated to public-private partnership (PPP), he said.

Sharing the plan to develop HCM City into a smart city and aneconomic-financial hub of the country and the region, he suggested the IFMprovide consultancy and assistance for the city to make a plan for building itsfinancial centre, while sharing experience in mobilising resources from the privatesector, businesses and scientists for its socio-economic development.

For his part, Alex Mourmouras affirmed that the IMF attaches importance tocooperation with Vietnam, including HCM City.

The fund is willing to provide expert and technical support to help HCM City organiseseminars and studies on urban transport infrastructure development, and dealwith issues related to public investment, budget management, local income increaseand State budget spending.

Expressing his interest in HCM City’s smart city building programme, the IFMofficial said the city and his organisation can coordinate with the State Bankof Vietnam, universities and institutes to hold workshops on high-quality humanresources development, support for innovative startups, cyber security andimpacts of automation on labour force and development of the economy.-VNA