During his Friday reception for British Consul-General in Ho Chi Minh City Emily Hamblin, Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh expressed his hope that the British Consulate General would encourage even more British investors to seek investment opportunities in Da Nang, especially in such priority aspects as tourism, services, and high technology.

Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh (right) presenting a momento to British Consul-General in Ho Chi Minh City Emily Hamblin during the Friday reception

Da Nang is expected to hold an investment forum in early June with the aim of helping domestic and foreign businesses gain a deeper insight into the city’s investment and business environment, Vice Chairman Minh said.

With regard to the IT industry, the Da Nang Software Park No 2 is progressing on track and some of its parts are expected to be put into use in early 2022. It is hoped that more British technology companies would seek opportunities to embark upon their future business activities in this park.

In addition, infrastructure development has basically reached completion at the Da Nang Hi-Tech Park, ready to welcome domestic and foreign businesses involved in research and development (R&D) and incubation.

Besides, Da Nang is now looking forwards to building up cooperation activities with the UK to protect the environment and effectively respond to climate change.

Addressing the reception, British Consul-General Emily Hamblin highly commended Da Nang, and Viet Nam as a whole, for having effectively controlled the COVID-19 resurgence.

The British diplomat also highly appreciated the entrepreneurship spirit in Da Nang which has flourished over recent times.

In reality, Da Nang boasts many noticeable advantages such as relatively developed infrastructure, many universities and technology companies, along with the municipal government’s keen interest and practical support for accelerating the progress of high-tech and IT industries, and especially the city’s plan to build a Southeast Asian regional international financial centre.

It is noticeable that the trade relationship between Da Nang and the UK has seen positive results over recent years.

The UK-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA), which took effect temporarily from 1 January, is expected to bring many practical benefits to businesses of the two countries.

In particular, amongst the items that enjoy import exemption under UKVFTA are some key products for export in which Da Nang specilise such as frozen seafood, textiles and furniture.

The landmark agreement is viewed as  an important tool for British businesses to seize cooperation opportunities with Da Nang partners, hereby strengthening bilateral commercial relationships in the coming time.

Ms Hamblin also pledged to introduce Da Nang’s living and investment environment to British businesses in the time ahead.

In 2020, Da Nang's exports to the UK hit an estimated 31.5 million US$, whilst imports from this European country to the city reached 700,000 US$.

Da Nang’s key exports include textile products, frozen seafood, fishing rods and handicrafts, whilst major imported goods are medicines, garment materials, machinery and equipment.

As of December 2020, Da Nang had attracted 16 UK-invested projects totalling 1.26 million US$ (not including FDI projects invested by the British Virgin Islands).

By KHANG NINH- Translated by A.T