On Tuesday, Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh held a reception for the Consul General of the State of Kuwait in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr Khaled Falah Al-Mutairi.

Mr Al-Mutairi (left) and Vice Chairman Minh

Vice Chairman Minh asked the Consul General to appeal for more Kuwaiti businesses to invest into such local aspects as hi-tech industries, tourism real estate, and oil and gas support industries. He also suggested that the Kuwaiti Consulate General and Da Nang should jointly organise trade promotion activities in the city as soon as possible.

In reply, Mr Al-Mutairi said that, on this first visit to the city, he had been deeply impressed by the beauty of Da Nang.  He remarked that Kuwait has always shown a keen interest in seeking investment opportunities in Da Nang, and in Viet Nam as a whole.  He reported that Kuwait is one of the 4 sponsors of the Kuwait Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex project in Thanh Hoa Province, and that the Kuwaiti government had granted ODA capital to 14 other projects in Viet Nam.

The Kuwaiti diplomat vowed that he would make every effort to further deepen the bilaterial cooperation between the 2 countries, and appeal for Kuwaiti investment inflows into the city in the years ahead.

On the same day, Vice Chairman Minh also met with some representatives from the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) to discuss the deployment of a project to survey and collect data on the volume of sediment in the river basins of the central region.

Ms Urakami (left) and Vice Chairman Minh

The Lead Advisor for Climate Change at JICA Viet Nam, Ms Akiko Urakami, said that the project is being deployed between February and September this year.  It aims to identify the main causes of, and the environmental impacts of, coastal erosion and other related phenomena of the sediment transport in the central provinces from Quang Tri to Phu Yen.  Based on the results, more effective measures will be taken to monitor and manage the volume of sediment in the region.  Ms Urakami proposed that the Da Nang authorities should provide JICA with all the necessary information on water usage, and the problem of drought in the basin areas of the Vu Gia and Thu Bon rivers, in order to support their research and survey activities.

Vice Chairman Minh highlighted the significance of the project in mitigating the current problems of erosion in the basin areas of these rivers, problems which have adversely affected the daily lives and agricultural activities of residents in Da Nang, and others in the whole region.

The city leader asked relevant local agencies to offer the necessary information to JICA in order for them to conduct their surveys effectively.  He also asked JICA’s experts to report the results of their research activities, and to share their experiences in developing data management software.  This will help the relevant local agencies to enhance the quality of their data storage services in the future.