Fourteen German businesses, many of which headquartered in Germany’s capital city of Berlin, have joined two business promotion events in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

They accompanied Klaus Wowereit, Mayor of Berlin, in his first-ever visit to Vietnam to attend the two events designed to seek cooperation opportunities between German and Vietnamese in various fields, such as transportation, water and waste treatment, energy, and architecture.

He arrived at the southern economic hub on Wednesday after meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Hanoi People's Committee Chairman Nguyen The Thao and joined the economic conference promoting the image of Berlin in Hanoi two days earlier.

In the Hanoi event, the focus was the cooperation opportunities between German and Vietnamese businesses, as well as cooperation in the field of higher education, in particular with the Banking Academy, the partner of the The Berlin School of Economics and Law (BSEL).

Mr. Wowereit was accompanied by Mr Eric Schweitzer - chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Berlin (IHK), Mr. Stephan Schwarz - deputy chairman of IHK, Ms. Melanie Behr – CEO of Berlin Partner Group , Prof. Dr. Hans - Ulrich Heiss , Vice Rector of the Technical University of Berlin and Prof. Dr. Bernd Reissert - Rector of the BSEL.

In HCMC, Mr. Wowereit attended the Berlin- HCMC Infrastructure Conference to meet with leaders of the HCMC People's Committee.

The HCMC event also lured many local businesses who were seeking for a chance to cooperate with German firms sharing the same fields of interest.

At present, there are 1,734 companies in Vietnam in Berlin, accounting for 4.5 percent of foreign companies and making them the 5th largest foreign business community operating there, said Stephan Schwarz, vice president of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, at the conference.

Currently, some European countries are still in a difficult economic situation, but Germany has always retained socioeconomic stability, and Berlin is one of the dynamic developed cities in the European Union, he said.

In addition, Berlin is considered as an attractive destination, with an attractive investment environment for international businesses through the advantages of transport, infrastructure, modern and advanced energy efficiency systems.

Besides , Berlin has strengths in many other industries, such as healthcare, tourism, power engineering, transportation - logistics , and information technology - communication.