Đà Nẵng City's leadership at a reception with the Swiss ambassador to Việt Nam, Thomas Gass. VNS Photo Công Thành

ĐÀ NẴNG — The central city is calling for investment from Switzerland in fields of FinTech, hi-tech industries, semiconductors, AI services and sustainable tourism as well as establishing a Đà Nẵng-Swiss twin-city friendship.

Chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, Lê Trung Chinh made the proposal during a working visit by the Swiss Ambassador to Việt Nam, Thomas Gass, stressing that Đà Nẵng would create the best conditions in ensuring benefits for Swiss investors as well as other international businesses.

Chinh urged the ambassador to help build links with the Swiss business community to support and invest in Đà Nẵng in terms of finance, circular economy, innovation, start-ups and human resources training.

He said Đà Nẵng, which sent a delegation to participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos, would join the Swiss-Việt Nam Business Forum in Zurich, this June to promote business partnership building plans.

Property projects are developing in Sơn Trà Peninsula, Đà Nẵng City. The city has allocated land area for the development of the first international finance centre in the coming years. VNS Photo Công Thành

Thomas Gass said Switzerland was among the top seven countries of FDI investors in ASEAN, but only US$2 billion had been poured into Việt Nam.

He said the major investment was in Singapore, where Swiss businesses found favourable conditions, and Việt Nam must have similar regulations to attract Swiss partners.

The ambassador said Đà Nẵng City’s leadership should promote business meetings with Swiss partners in Việt Nam and Switzerland, sharing more about investment potential and cooperation possibilities in the near future.

He said Switzerland, in cooperation with the World Bank and Asia Development Bank, had been implementing four projects including low carbon, smart city, innovation in Đà Nẵng City, and the two sides would boost the cooperation in finance, sustainable tourist, innovation and hi-tech industries.

Last December, Đà Nẵng inked a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the development of the Đà Nẵng International Financial Centre (Đà Nẵng IFC) with Consessor AG company, a Swiss strategic advisory firm focusing on internationalisation and market entry, and VinaCapital Group during the World Economic Forum (WEF), Switzerland.

Former Vice Chancellor of Germany and founder of Consessor AG company, Philipp Rosler, and Don Lam, CEO and founding partner of Vinacapital, agreed to help Đà Nẵng connect financial educational centres in Switzerland in training human resources for the future’s Đà Nẵng IFC.

Đà Nẵng’s leadership had working sessions and discussions with Swiss financial institutions including Bitcoin Suisse and Maerki Baumann Bank.

A series of MoUs were signed on educational cooperation and developing Đà Nẵng's IFC between partners including Makara Capital, Newtechco Group, Deutsche Bank Vietnam, United Oversea Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Terne Holdings, TMC Academy Singapore, Yuan Ze University in Taiwan, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Việt Nam Blockchain Association. VNS