HCM City (VNA) Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan hosted a reception for outgoing UK Ambassador to Vietnam Giles Lever in the city on June 11.

Nhan highly valued contributions of the UK Ambassador to the development of the two countries’ ties.

He proposed that the UK assist Ho Chi Minh City in developing a smart city, noting that the city has planned to build an administrative centre in the Thu Thiem urban area and a contest on designs for the centre will be held soon.

The municipal leader also hailed contributions of the UK ambassador in improving Vietnam’s legal system, including anti-corruption regulations.

He underscored that the Vietnamese Government has paid due attention to transparency, while listening to public opinions and giving prominence to the role of the press in fighting corruption.

Ambassador Lever noted that the UK-Vietnam cooperation has been deepened over the past four years in the traditional areas of trade and education, and expanded to other fields such as anti-corruption.

He spoke highly of Vietnam’s efforts in strengthening the prevention and fight of corruption and encouraging transparency as well as the press’s involvement in anti-corruption, which is an important factor to avoid corruption.

In late 2018, the UK will launch a programme to give technical assistance to Vietnam in improving business environment, intelligence property, capital management, and finance, he said.

Lever added that Ho Chi Minh City is one of the 40 cities around the world receiving support from the UK to build smart cities.-VNA
VNA