During his reception on Tuesday for Mr Shinichi Asazuma from the Embassy of Japan in Viet Nam, Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh remarked “Da Nang signed memoranda of understanding on establishing bilateral cooperative relations with Japan’s Kawasaki City in 2007, Sakai City in 2009, and Yokohama City in 2013”.

Mr Shinichi Asazuma (left) and Vice Chairman Minh

Vice Chairman Minh expressed his delight at the fruitful results from bilateral cooperative ties with Yokohama City, especially in urban development, thanks to the active support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The host asked for help from the Japanese diplomat to facilitate Da Nang to access to official development assistance (ODA) capital and other loans, and to appeal for more Japanese businesses to invest into the city in various aspects.  In addition, he vowed that the city authorities would exert even more efforts to enhance local investment environment to attract event more Japanese investors.

In reply, the Japanese guest remarked that the success of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week, which was held in Da Nang last November, has helped to advertise the city’s image to Japanese citizens, and opened up more opportunities for the city to promote its tourism activities in the Japanese market.

The Japanese ambassador underlined the significance of creating the city’s list of priority projects which are in need of accessing ODA capital in a bid to facilitate the implementation of these projects as soon as possible.

In another meeting with the Counselor of the Embassy of Finland in Viet Nam, Mr. Marko Saarinen, in the afternoon of the same day, Vice Chairman Minh highlighted fruitful results from bilateral relations with Finland.

The host remarked “Since 2014, Da Nang has deployed a large number of large-scale practical projects for building a smart city in many major aspects. They are traffic infrastructure, water supplies and drainage systems, food safety and hygiene management, education, healthcare, and the application of electronic data collection sensors to supply information used to manage assets and resources efficiently.”

Vice Chairman Minh said he hopes the Finnish government to give favourable conditions for his city to develop it into the smart city, and to implement local start-up projects.  In addition, he appealed for even more Finish investors to the city in such aspects as IT and innovative technological industries.

The Finnish ambassador noted that some Finnish experts specialising in developing smart city, along with representatives from his country’s Tukur City would visit Da Nang to discuss about the possibility of establishing bilateral cooperation with the city.