Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyễn Văn Nên (right) had talks with Secretary of the Party Committee of China’s Hainan Province Shen Xiaoming in HCM City on Tuesday. — VNA/VNS Photo Đinh Hằng

HCM CITY — Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Nguyễn Văn Nên received visiting Secretary of the Party Committee of China’s Hainan Province Shen Xiaoming in the southern city on Tuesday.

Nên welcomed Shen’s visit, describing it as the first step for the two localities to strengthen their partnership in many fields.

He recalled difficulties that HCM City faced during the hard time when the fourth wave of COVID-19 hit the country, and the support from international friends, including China. Currently, the city was on its post-pandemic economic recovery period.

Highlighting the similarities between HCM City and Hainan, Nên said both acted as an economic hub in each country.

Noting that Hainan is successfully implementing the free trade model, while HCM City is the centre of Việt Nam’s southern economic region, he expressed his hope to receive the sharing of experience from the Chinese province and promote bilateral partnership in various fields such as high technology, healthcare, new and renewable energy.

Nên said he hoped for more visits and direct meetings between leaders of the two localities and their departments in the future, enabling the two sides to share experience and continue to foster their cooperative and strategic partnership.

For his part, Shen congratulated HCM City on overcoming the pandemic and stabilising locals’ life, and showed his impression at the growth of the city in recent years.

He said that since June 2020, the Chinese Government decided to turn Hainan into a free trade zone. The policy had proved its efficiency, as the province topped Chinese localities in terms of GDP growth. Hainan was also the leading locality in foreign investment attraction, he added.

Shen said that in recent years, Hainan had seen breakthrough development in green energy economy, especially electricity vehicle manufacturing.

Commenting that HCM City is the most dynamic and developed locality of Việt Nam, Shen proposed the two sides learn from each other and promote their collaboration in many areas for common development.

The two localities should resume their direct air route and bolster cooperation in tourism, agriculture, biotechnology, services and green economy, he suggested. — VNS