A high-ranking delegation of HCM City, led by the Chairman of its People’s Committee, Phan Văn Mãi, visited Los Angeles International Airport on July 19 (US time). — Photo sggp.org.vn

LOS ANGELES — Leaders of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the fifth-busiest airport in the world, have shown their interest in opening a direct air route connecting the US city with HCM City.

They had a meeting with a high-ranking delegation of HCM City led by the Chairman of its People’s Committee, Phan Văn Mãi, on July 19 (local time).

According to LAX leaders, the airport has resumed over 60 per cent of international flights and more than 80 per cent of domestic ones.

Mãi briefed the hosts on the operation of Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport, which has a designed capacity of 25 million passengers a year, but has been serving nearly 40 million, leading to overloading in the areas surrounding the airfield.

He hoped the two cities would cooperate to launch the direct flight connecting them as soon as possible.

Earlier, Mãi met with leaders of the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System (NASDAQ) Stock Market in New York.

The NASDAQ Stock Market is the second-largest stock exchange in the US after the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). It trades in an average daily volume of 200,000 shares. There are more than 4,000 companies listed on NASDAQ with a market capitalisation of US$15,000-17,000 billion and more than 10,000 corporate clients.

Mãi said that the southern economic hub of Việt Nam aimed to become an international financial centre offering diversified financial services and showing deep integration in the world market.

He hoped that NASDAQ’s experts would share their experience and support the city in building the international financial centre, so the city’s businesses would have a chance to be listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market in the future. — VNS