HCMCity (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’sCommittee Tran Vinh Tuyen met with visiting Chairman of Enterprise SingaporePeter Ong on August 13, stating that his city hopes to learn from the latter’sexperience in smart city building.

Singapore is currently the largest foreigndirect investor in HCM City with over 1,100 projects worth more than 10.6billion USD in total, Tuyen said, noting that it has contributed to localdevelopment and dynamism.

He expressed his wish that Singapore will retainits leading position and realise the cooperation potential in carrying outsub-projects for HCM City’s smart city building plan, including building asmart operations centre and developing new residential areas. The Vietnamesesouthern hub also hopes to expand bilateral partnerships in priority fields, suchas waterway transport, logistics, and flood prevention.

In appreciation of the goodwill of Singaporeanbusinesses, the official spoke highly of the country’s expertise and capacityin applying high technology in the development process. He suggested that cooperationwith Singaporean firms in building an operations centre to help HCM Cityswiftly deal with urgent problems like transport, water, and other innovativecity building and development issues.

💖[Infographics: Vietnam-Singapore strategic partnership]

For his part, Peter Ong, who is also a senioreconomic advisor at the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry, noted withsatisfaction that the two countries have together built close-knit relations,especially in terms of economy.

Singaporean firms are looking to make long-term cooperationand investments in Vietnam, which is reflected in the fact that Singaporerespectively ranks first and third among foreign investors in HCM City and in Vietnam,he noted.

He added that his country’s enterprises highlyvalue the attractiveness and potential of Vietnam’s investment climate,particularly in terms of infrastructure, industrial parks, and transport. Theyhope to contribute to the socio-economic development of Vietnam.

Peter Ong emphasised that with a young and industriousworkforce, HCM City holds necessary conditions to continue its dynamicdevelopment trend, especially if it is able to apply high technologies and techniquesin an appropriate fashion.

Singapore has many businesses experienced inbuilding data centres and supplying solutions and technologies for developingtransport systems and urban infrastructure. They are ready to share thoseexperiences and join the making of master plans and the construction of a localurban innovation centre.

Aside from the geographical proximity andlong-standing friendship, smart city building is a good chance for Singaporeanfirms to strengthen ties with HCM City in the future, he noted.–VNA