HCM City (VNA) – Ho ChiMinh City and the Chinese localities on the banks of the Yellow River boastmuch room for economic, trade, and investment cooperation thanks to culturalsimilarities and complementary goods structures, heard a conference held in the Vietnamesecity on March 11.

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

Meanwhile, he noted, HCM City is the largest economic hub of Vietnam that postsfast-growing trade, information technology, culture, and tourism and holdsconsiderable potential for extensive economic partnerships with the provincesin 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 partnerof Vietnam, which in turn respectively ranks fourth and first among tradingpartners of China in the world and ASEAN, according to Song.

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

Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’sCommittee 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 hasinvested over 303 million USD in 590 projects to rank 17th among the122 countries and territories directly investing here, he said.

HCM City welcomes and wishes toenhance cooperation with Shandong and those on the banks of the Yellow River inthe 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 Cityis working to become a smart city and build a regional logistics hub. During thisprocess, apart from its own efforts, it hopes Shandong and the others willincrease importing the goods HCM City is strong at, and encourage theirbusinesses boasting science - technology and innovation advantages to invest inHCM City.

HCM City pledges to continueimproving the local investment climate to provide the best possible conditionsfor foreign firms, including those from Shandong and those located besides theYellow River, to make investment, the Vice Chairman remarked.

Wei Huaxiang, Chinese Consul Generalin HCM City, said Shandong has long maintained sound cooperation with southernlocalities of Vietnam, including HCM City.

Many renowned businesses of Shandonghave invested in HCM City while the number of direct flights between the cityand the Yellow River localities has almost doubled, showing their hugecooperation potential expected to be expanded and benefit both sides, headded./.