JOURNALIST: - What did Ho Chi Minh City leaders learn from their recent trip abroad, and what have they done so far after this trip?
Mr. TRAN VINH TUYEN: - Ho Chi Minh City is currently at a high growth phase in the process of urbanization. Besides some achievements, the City also reveals some weaknesses, such as air pollution, stagnant sewer system, traffic jams and some other issues related to migrants, such as accommodation and jobs.
Ho Chi Minh City authorities have learnt many precious lessons and experiences from their trip to Germany and the Netherlands. They all intend to use their experience to find solutions and to resolve all issues at the earliest.
The trip comprised of many meetings with institutions, enterprises and government officials of Germany and the Netherlands. Ho Chi Minh City leaders have signed some principal memos with the Ministry of Water Resources and Infrastructure Management of Netherlands to manage the water system in Ho Chi Minh City. They have also signed a long term agreement with the Netherlands for support in flood management and to ensure clean water supply for 10mn residents of the City in the future.
| Working with experts of Germany and the Netherlands also helped Ho Chi Minh City leaders to have an overview of future of 4.0 industrialization and AI technology in next five years. |
In Germany, Ho Chi Minh City authorities signed several cooperative agreements with the Mayor of Frankfurt, including plan to make Ho Chi Minh City a financial hub. Frankly speaking, we gained vast knowledge in urban management and development through this trip.
Nguyen Thien Nhan (second from right), Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, was instructed by a Dutch delegate. Photo: Minh Phong - How can the model of developed countries help Ho Chi Minh City resolve the current issues of flooding, traffic jams, air pollution, and accommodation for poor people? - For example, we can apply the multi-functional sea dyke system of the Netherlands in relocating and renovating the houses along the current canals. Accordingly, along the canals, river banks, we can construct dykes, transportation roads and attractive tourist spots. Or we can also apply the microbial wastewater treatment to improve the water quality of the City’s canals, to make them green channels of water supply in the future. Currently, the City is implementing the project to make Ho Chi Minh City a smart, creative city. The authorities are very interested in applying technology in doing this project. In this trip, the leaders visited Eindhoven City of Netherlands and Darmstadt of Germany, the two technology and AI centers. The authorities learnt many good models for Ho Chi Minh City there. Working with experts of these two cities also helped the City leaders have an overview about the future of 4.0 industrialization and AI technology in the next five years. Through meetings, the above two cities exhibited their willingness to train Ho Chi Minh City officials in AI technology and application. We also visited the natural laboratory in the Netherlands. The area size is 150ha with about 5,000 inhabitants, to test many habitable future issues. We have not only observed the technology, the environment, but also the people in such areas, to learn the experiences to apply in practice in Vietnam. This model helps us speed up our research, evaluate the impact and negative influences to society if any, and do necessary adjustment before applying on a bigger scale. This helps us in having a picture of society in the future when new technology is applied or new behavior spreads across society.- Through this visit, Ho Chi Minh City authorities also held two seminars to create opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to interact with foreign companies and attract new investments. What were the results? - In these seminars, many Netherland and German enterprises showed interest in investing in Vietnam. For example, some companies would like to invest in nanotechnology products to improve the productivity of rice or livestock breeding. They would like to make Ho Chi Minh City a distribution center for Vietnam and regional areas. We were also so happy to meet overseas Vietnamese in Germany and the Netherlands. They showed interest in coming back and investing in Vietnam. Some other companies would like to invest in projects to produce electricity from garbage. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 200 projects which need investment capital, including projects to develop infrastructure, improve environment and restructure the urban areas. These are strengths of Germany and the Netherlands. We expect investors from these two countries to come and invest in Vietnam soon. Through the trips to Germany and Netherlands, we understood more the development of the world, learnt how they develop their countries, what issues they face and how they resolve them, then use these experiences and lessons in the Vietnamese context. Working with authorities, enterprises, institutes, experts, scientists of these two countries helped us find suitable and reasonable solutions for Ho Chi Minh City. We were also successful in making several institutions, universities and companies become our long term partners for next 5-10 years. Ho Chi Minh City calls for investments from these two countries in the City as well as Vietnam for the benefit of all parties. To conclude, the lessons from the trip will soon be studied and applied in the City. We will apply high technology to create stronger growth in the City at the earliest.- Thank you very much.
| Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 200 projects which need investment capital, including projects to develop infrastructure, improve the environment and restructure urban areas. These are strengths of Germany and the Netherlands. We expect businesses from these two countries to come and invest in Vietnam soon. |
