Ho Chi Minh City and the UK’s Wales boast potential to intensify their cooperation in tourism, trade, and financial and banking services.

Besides, the two sides can also step up their linkage in education, in particular tertiary education, the field of the UK s strength, the UK's Secretary of State for Wales, David Jones, told Vice Chairwoman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hong during their meeting in the city on March 21.

The Secretary said he was impressed by the strong development of Vietnam in general, and of HCM City in particular and saw many investment opportunities for his British businesses.

Hong, for her part, described the opening of a direct flight route connecting HCM City and London as the contribution to boosting the multifaceted cooperation and trade exchanges between the two sides.

In 2012, trade between the city and the UK saw an increase of 10 percent. The city greeted over 77,000 British visitors and the number is expected to rise in the coming time.

To connect the two sides’ businesses, Hong suggested organising business exchanges and fact-finding trips to seek cooperation and investment opportunities.

The Vice Chairwoman also briefed Jones on her city’s current socio-economic development, adding that there are 95 British invested projects capitalising at over 680 million EUR and 22 UK business representative offices in the city.-VNA