A meeting to designate possible cooperation activities between Ho Chi Minh City and Japan was opened in the southern Vietnamese city on March 12.

Participants to the events included Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan and Chairman of Japan’s Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) in Singapore Adachi Masahide.

Addressing the event, Masahide said numerous exchange activities between Japan and Vietnamese localities have yielded significant achievements, particularly in agriculture, infrastructure construction, tourism and trade.

In recent years, the city of Osaka has supported HCM City in sewage treatment and high-tech agriculture, Masahide said, adding that many Japanese enterprises have effectively invested in the city.

In return, Quan hoped the CLAIR will continue to act as a link between Japanese localities and HCM City to improve locality cooperation.

Quan added HCM City has collaborative ties with five Japanese localities, making Japan is one of the city’s leading partners.

So far, Japan has invested 3.5 billion USD in HCM City.

HCM City exports to Japan reached 2.7 billion USD and imported from the East Asian country commodities worth 1.7 billion USD in 2014

Founded in 1988, the CLAIR aims to support local governments in organising collaborative activities among provinces and to improve international relations among the 10 ASEAN member states and India.-VNA