HCM CITY — HCM City and Chinese cities have huge potential for co-operation in many sectors, Lê Thanh Liêm, the deputy chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee, has said.

Speaking at the Qingdao-HCM City business seminar held in HCM City on Thursday, he said that trade between HCM City and China had grown rapidly in the last few years to US$9.6 billion last year.

It was worth nearly $4.8 billion in the first half of the year.

As of July, Chinese investors ranked 14th out of countries and territories investing in the city, with 181 projects and total registered capital of $314.37 million.

Liêm said the city was making “tremendous efforts to become one of Southeast Asia’s major financial, economic, trading and technological hubs”.

The city is focusing on its key industries in an effort to realise the target. The key sectors include mechanical engineering, electronics - information technology, chemicals - plastics – rubber and food processing.

He said the city government was aware of the importance of external resources and international businesses and investors, including those from China, in contributing to the city’s development.

Zhang Xinqi, mayor of Qingdao, said with a population of more than 9 million, the coastal city in China is a major seaport and economic centre of Shandong Province.

Many Qingdao leading businesses invested and would continue to invest in Việt Nam, he said.

He also invited Vietnamese companies to his city to seek investment opportunities.

The seminar saw the participation of 10 Qingdao companies operating in construction, banking, financial investment and property sectors, who came to discover business opportunities in the city.

Võ Tân Thành, director of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Việt Nam’s exports to China were worth $10.7 billion in the first seven months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 13.7 per cent, with main export items including crude oil, coal, rubber, rice, fruits and vegetables and seafood.

It spent $27.4 billion to import goods from China, mostly machinery and equipment, raw materials for garment and textile and footwear, steel and fertilisers.

The seminar was followed by a business-to-business meeting to enable further exchange of information and co-operation opportunities. — VNS