HCM City’s top leader receives former PM of Japan

HCM City (VNA) – Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Van Nen on January 11 received former Prime Minister of Japan Suga Yoshihide who is on a working visit to the southern largest city.

Highlighting great potential for cooperation between HCM City and Japan, Nen talked about the city’s challenges in the development process, saying that its infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, has yet to meet socio-economic development requirements.

The city’s Metro Line No. 1 project is a symbol of Vietnam-Japan relations, Nen said, adding that it is expected to become a bright spot and create trust among people so as to effectively carry out other metro projects, thus improving traffic matters in HCM City.

He took this occasion to thank the Japanese government and people for their timely assistance to Vietnam and HCM City as well during the hardest times of the COVID-19 pandemic, thus helping the city control the pandemic and reaped important socio-economic achievements in 2022.

Nen also expressed his hope that Suga, in his capacity as advisor to the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance and with his prestige and dedication, would continue contributing to the development of relations between Vietnam and Japan as well as between HCM City and Japanese localities and partners.

Suga expressed his impression for HCM City’s strong development and thanked the city’s leaders for creating favourable conditions for Japanese enterprises which are investing and doing business there.

He spoke highly of cooperative ties between HCM City and Japanese localities and proposed the city’s leaders to accelerate the deployment of signed projects and successful organisation of Japan-Vietnam Festival in HCM City next month, thereby promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two countries and contributing to the development of the bilateral relations./.