Ho Chi Minh City is expected to become the cooperation model between Vietnamese localities and Japan, Phan Van Mai, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, said at a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the 50th milestone of Vietnam-Japan relationship.

“The speed and level of development of this bilateral relationship have been truly astonishing, substantial, and reassuring,” Mai said at the event.

According to Mai, as Japan continues fostering connections with the Mekong region and promoting its vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, Ho Chi Minh City can serve as an important link allowing the regional supply and value chains to be enhanced and a just, stable, and viable regional security architecture to be ensured. 

Also at the event, Japanese Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Ono Masuo claimed that the relationship between the two nations is now in an extremely good place with friendship and cooperation deepening at all levels, particularly in the realms of the economy, politics, culture, and sport.

“The relationship between Vietnam and Japan is  becoming more equal and interdependent, rather than the former relationship of being the donor and the recipient of aid,” Masuo said.

To date, Japan has over 1,600 projects with a total capital of nearly $8.2 billion in the city.

Ho Chi Minh City-Japan trade turnover in 2022 reached nearly $5.1 billion.

These impressive growth rates have elevated Japan to be Ho Chi Minh City’s third largest investor and fifth largest trading partner.

Making use of leveraging of the policies, Mai shared expectations that Ho Chi Minh City will continue receiving advice, support, and collaboration from Japanese partners in order to help it break through on the regional and global growth map.

He also noted that Japanese investors are expected to step up investments and help Ho Chi Minh City hone its competitive edges in transportation, production infrastructure, logistics, healthcare, and urban development.

In addition, fields such as digital economy development, innovation, green growth, circular economy, and new energy hold the promise of expanding cooperation opportunities between both sides.

In particular, Ho Chi Minh City hopes to work with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to build new models for Official Development Assistance (ODA) that exemplify the dynamic combination of JICA’s ODA, the city’s budget, investments from businesses, and contributions from service users.

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