During his reception on Thursday for Mr Craig Chittick, the Australian Ambassador to Viet Nam, Da Nang People’s Committee Chairman Huynh Duc Tho highlighted the fruitful results from the bilateral cooperative relationships with Australian localities in such aspects as economy, education and culture over recent years.

Chairman Tho (right) presenting a momento to Australian diplomat Chittick

The city chief thanked the Australian diplomat, and his government, for assisting Da Nang in implementing a number of local projects, especially in preparing for the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week 2017.

About 15 businesses in the city have established trade relations with Australian localities. To date, Da Nang has been home to 28 Australian-invested projects, worth nearly 14.6 million USD in total.

In the first half of this year, the city’s total export turnover to Australia hit 6.1 million USD, up 11% compared with the same period last year, whilst the city’s total import turnover from Australia reached 1.5 million USD, a rise of 8% against last year.

The host said he would like Mr Chittick to do his utmost to strengthen the bilateral cooperation between Da Nang and Australian localities.

For his part, Mr Chittick said that he was very impressed by the city’s rapid economic growth in recent years, especially its incentive policy for foreign investors.

The Australian guest affirmed that he would continue acting as a bridge in encouraging more strategic businesses from his country to invest into the city’s Hi-tech Park.

In addition, he would provide the city with information about cooperative programmes about manpower training in tourism and hospitality sectors.

Co-organised by the Australian and Vietnamese governments, these programmes are expected to be implemented in Da Nang in the coming time. The intention is to help the city build qualified human resources in order to meet the rapid development of the local tourism sector.