Da Nang (VNS/VNA) — The central city of Da Nang is calling for investment from Switzerland in fields of fintech, hi-tech industries, semiconductors, AI services and sustainable tourism as well as establishing a Da Nang-Swiss twin-city friendship.
Chairman of the city’s People’s Committee Le Trung Chinh made the proposal during a working visit by the Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam Thomas Gass, stressing that Da Nang would create the best conditions in ensuring benefits for Swiss investors as well as other international businesses.
Chinh urged the ambassador to help build links with the Swiss business community to support and invest in Da Nang in terms of finance, circular economy, innovation, start-ups and human resources training.
He said Da Nang, which sent a delegation to participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos, would join the Swiss-Vietnam Business Forum in Zurich, this June to promote business partnership building plans.
Thomas Gass said Switzerland was among the top seven countries of FDI investors in ASEAN, but only 2 billion USD had been poured into Vietnam.
He said the major investment was in Singapore, where Swiss businesses found favourable conditions, and Vietnam must have similar regulations to attract Swiss partners.
The ambassador said Da Nang’s authorities should promote business meetings with Swiss partners in Vietnam and Switzerland, sharing more about investment potential and cooperation possibilities in the near future.
He said Switzerland, in cooperation with the World Bank and Asia Development Bank, had been implementing four projects including low carbon, smart city, innovation in Da Nang, and the two sides would boost the cooperation in finance, sustainable tourist, innovation and hi-tech industries.
Last December, Da Nang inked a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the development of the Da Nang International Financial Centre (Da Nang IFC) with Consessor AG company, a Swiss strategic advisory firm focusing on internationalisation and market entry, and VinaCapital Group during the World Economic Forum (WEF), Switzerland.
Former Vice Chancellor of Germany and founder of Consessor AG company, Philipp Rosler, and Don Lam, CEO and founding partner of Vinacapital, agreed to help Da Nang connect financial educational centres in Switzerland in training human resources for the future’s Da Nang IFC.
Da Nang’s authorities had working sessions and discussions with Swiss financial institutions including Bitcoin Suisse and Maerki Baumann Bank.
A series of MoUs were signed on educational cooperation and developing Da Nang's IFC between partners including Makara Capital, Newtechco Group, Deutsche Bank Vietnam, United Oversea Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Terne Holdings, TMC Academy Singapore, Yuan Ze University in Taiwan, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Vietnam Blockchain Association./.
