Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, made the statement at a reception for Takei Shunsuke, State Minister for Foreign Affair of Japan, on February 24.
HCM City has always paid attention to and cooperated with the Consulate General of Japan in the city in effectively implementing cultural activities and people-to-people exchanges with the East Asia country, he said.
The city highly appreciates the upcoming Vietnam-Japan Festival in 2023, considering it a major event marking the start of a range of activities in celebration of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties, Mai said, adding that it has closely coordinated with the Japanese side to ensure the success of the festival.
The official suggested the Japanese Government and partners expand and diversify forms of cooperation with HCM City, thus contributing to improving the city's integration capacity and spreading their fruitful collaboration to the southern key economic regions and other localities.
For his part, Takei said the relationship between Japan and Vietnam has been developing well. The two countries have regularly exchanged high-level delegations, supported each other to overcome difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic and determined to continue promoting their relations.
Japan highly appreciated the potential of HCM City and hoped that the city will further improve the investment environment, creating more favourable conditions for Japanese businesses as well as contributing to fostering cooperation between the two countries, he said.
Takei emphasised that Japan has always paid attention to the future of the two countries' relations, including the implementation of official development assistance (ODA) projects in Vietnam and HCM City.
The diplomat also said that Japan welcomes and supports the city to expand exchanges and cooperation with Japanese partners, including Japanese localities that HCM City has signed friendship cooperation agreements with.
During his working visit to HCM City, the Japanese official will attend the opening ceremony of the Vietnam-Japan Festival 2023 and inspect the progress of the city’s Metro Line No 1 project.
