During his reception on Wednesday for Mrs. Sarah Hooper, the new Australian Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Standing Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People's Committee Ho Ky Minh thanked the Australian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and Mrs. Sarah Hooper for their special care and support for Da Nang in promoting the bilateral cooperation ties with Australia in such aspects as culture, education and economy.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People's Committee Ho Ky Minh (right) warmly receiving Mrs. Sarah Hooper, the new Consul General of Australia in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: LAM PHUONG

Up to now, Da Nang has signed three Memoranda of Understanding to establish cooperative relations with some of Australian localities, including Queensland, South Australia and Gold Coast City.

Also, 15 businesses in Da Nang have set up trade relations with Australia. The city has attracted 29 Australian-invested projects with a total investment of US$13.9 million.

Currently, the city is on track to establish the bilateral cooperation relationship with the City of Melbourne, Victoria, on the basis of their similarities in strengths and development priorities.

Standing Vice Chairman Minh hoped that the Australian diplomat will act as a bridge to appeal for more businesses from her country to invest into Da Nang in the coming time.

Mrs. Sarah Hooper, in reply, said that Australia was focusing on promoting the development of clean energy, renewable energy, logistics and high technology.

She revealed that many large universities in Australia have regularly organised vocational training programmes, and have trained high-quality human resources, in Viet Nam, including Da Nang.

The Australian visitor was committed to continuing to promote cooperation and connection activities between Australian and Da Nang localities and businesses in potential fields in the years to come, thereby contributing to fostering investment activities between Viet Nam and Australia, aiming to be each other's top 10 major trading partners in the future.

Also on the same day, Standing Vice Chairman Minh warmly received a group of visitors from Salo City, Finland, and billionaire Peter Vesterbacka who is founder cum Chairman of the Finest Future organisation specialising in educational and start-up projects.

The city leader said that despite the impact of the complicated developments of the COVID-19 in 2021, Da Nang still recorded a positive growth compared to the previous year. He remarked that 2022 was designated the ‘Year of safe adaptation, flexibility, effective control of COVID-19 and socio-economic recovery and development’.

He noted Da Nang was on track to develop its innovation startup ecosystem with the participation of universities, research institutes, investors and relevant State agencies. Also, efforts were made to issue regulations to encourage and support coordination and cooperation among elements of the innovation startup ecosystem.

Moreover, the city has prioritised attracting and rapidly increasing the number of innovative startup consultants, especially in spearhead fields and strengths of Da Nang.

By 2030, Da Nang will upgrade its innovation startup ecosystem into an international level one, equivalent to some major innovation ecosystems in Southeast Asia.

Mrs. Terhikki Lehtonen, a representative from Salo City's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation cum Head of the Salo city delegation, said that Salo had strengths in the fields of manufacturing, engineering and wireless communication.

She added that Salo had successfully developed the Salo IoT Campus which was a community of companies, scientists and educational institutions.

Meanwhile, billionaire Peter Vesterbacka said that Da Nang and Salo had many potential cooperation opportunities, especially in three aspects of education, start-up and entertainment.

On Wednesday, the Salo city delegation and billionaire Peter Vesterbacka also worked with some representatives from the Da Nang Department of Science and Technology, the Da Nang Department of Information and Communications, and related units in the field of innovation, startup, network security and data management to look for cooperation opportunities.

Reporting by LAM PHUONG, THAO CHI, PHONG LAN - Translating by M.DUNG