Can Tho, Switzerland strengthen multifaceted cooperation

The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho wishes to receive continued support from Switzerland and the World Bank in climate change response, urban development, and tourism-trade-service development, said a local official.
Can Tho, Switzerland strengthen multifaceted cooperation ảnh 1Illustrative image (Photo: Internet)
Can Tho (VNA) – The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho wishesto receive continued support from Switzerland and the World Bank in climatechange response, urban development, and tourism-trade-service development, saida local official.

At a reception for Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam Ivo Sieber in the city on June22, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Quang Manh expressed hishope that Swiss enterprises will enhance investment cooperation with the city.

He said that Can Tho boasts fine relations with Switzerland in all fields suchas politics, foreign affairs, culture, sports, tourism and economy, trade andinvestment. However, the two sides still see a lot of potential to develop themin the near future.

Can Tho has favourable conditions in agricultural production, aquacultureand fruit cultivation, he said, adding that as a key city in the Mekong Delta,Can Tho is determined to build itself into the region’s economic, industrial,commercial and service centre.

For his part, Ambassador Ivo Sieber said that the Mekong Deltais a very important socio-economic region but now it is greatly affected by climatechange. He said he hopes that Switzerland will continue strengtheningcooperation in this field with Can Tho and is willing to cooperate with thecity to improve its institutional and technical capacity as well as the abilityof its civil servants.

According to the diplomat, the close coordination of management agencies atdifferent levels in planning and managing measures to renovate urban areas isan important factor to attract investment from the private sector.

Over the past years, Switzerland has coordinated with the WorldBank to support the city in strengthening its resilience to climate changethrough the project “Developing Can Tho city and strengthening adaptation capacity”. Nearly 40 percent ofthe city’s population with approximately 420,000 people in the core area areexpected to directly benefit from the project and 2,675 hectares of land willbe free from flooding.

The number of indirect beneficiaries from the project is even greater,including the city's remaining population of about 1.25 million and 10.3million in the Mekong Delta, equivalent to 60 percent of the region’s total population.

Can Tho isone of many cities within the framework of Swiss cooperation with Vietnam. Switzerland supports the city in many areas such as flood prevention and earlywarning, urban development and urban resilience enhancement, sustainabletourism, public finance management, business registration and agriculturalreform.

The Swiss Government is committed to assisting the economic transition,including the development of green cities with climate resilience and adaptation,in the Mekong Delta, he added.

Inaddition to meeting with municipal leaders, the Swiss Ambassador also visited anumber of Swiss-funded climate change prevention projects in the city./.
VNA

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