HCM City, Osaka cooperate in building low-carbon society

HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City and Japan’s Osaka city have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in low-carbon city development.

The MoU was reached by Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura on September 6. It is an extension of another MoU inked by the two localities in 2013.

Over the past three years, thanks to the support of Osaka city, HCM City devised an action plan on climate change response for 2016-2020, with a vision towards 2030.

The two cities have also organised various dialogues and meetings to promote public-private partnerships in order to actualise the plan.

Under the freshly-signed MoU, which will take effect through 2020, the two sides will step up cooperation in building a low-carbon society in the Vietnamese southern metropolis.

To that end, they will share skills and knowledge in this field and join hands with each other in developing human resources, creating relevant projects and raising public awareness of global warming.

At the same time, the two cities will continue implementing the annual policy dialogue mechanism at the mayor level.

Phong said HCM City appreciates the Japanese Government’s contributions to Vietnam and the city in particular, especially in the environment, noting that such assistance has helped improve living standards of local people.

The official expressed his hope that Osaka will support HCM City in personnel training to effectively manage climate change projects and build programmes on greenhouse gas emission reduction.

Phong suggested the two localities cooperate in other areas of mutual concern such as information-technology, support industry, processing and bio-technology.

Hirofumi Yoshimura said the Osaka side wishes to cooperate with Vietnam in supporting industry and support the two countries’ small-and medium-sized enterprises.-VNA