Ho Chi Minh City welcomes and facilitate foreign investors, including those from India, to invest and do business in the country’s largest economic hub, the city’s senior official.

Le Manh Ha, Vice Chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, made the statement while meeting with a group of Indian business representatives in the city on April 11.

Ha emphasised that fine political and diplomatic ties between Vietnam and India over the years have laid a solid foundation for trade and investment relations between the two countries, adding that both nations are striving to bring two-way trade turnover to 7 billion USD in 2015 and 15 billion USD by 2020.

According to the Vice Chairman, the city has made contributions to the Vietnam-India all-around relations, especially in the trade and economic fields with two-way turnover reaching over 700 million USD in 2013. India now has 26 investment projects in the city.

For his part, Indian Consul General in HCM City Deepak Mittal said that to further develop cooperative relations between the city and Indian partners, the Indian Business Association in Vietnam in 2014 will organise workshops to promote investment and trade so that businesses can seek cooperation opportunities.

India will also send delegations of businesses operating in the mechanical, pharmaceutical and oil and gas fields to HCM City to boost investment, he added.

Representatives from the Indian Business Association in Vietnam proposed that HCM City offers good opportunities for Indian partners to implement projects for mutual benefits, adding that, Vietnamese businesses can seek promising business opportunities in India by opening a representative office there.-VNA