Mayor of Izumiotsu city Minamide Kenichi delivers a speech at a meeting with Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu's authorities on May 21. - VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI – Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu is delighted to promote economic partnerships with Izumiotsu city of Japan’s Osaka prefecture and expand bilateral ties to other fields, an official of the southern Vietnamese province said on May 21.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Cong Vinh and other local officials had a meeting with a visiting delegation of Izumiotsu city led by Mayor Minamide Kenichi.

He said Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu is housing over 40 FDI projects of Japan with registered capital totalling about US$3.1 billion, making the Northeast Asian country the fifth largest foreign investor in the province. The projects focus on steel, industrial glass, rare chemical, packaging and apparel production, and seaport.

In 2014, the province established a Japan Desk to update Japanese enterprises about local potential, advantages, as well as investment and business procedures and assist them with other issues.

Vinh went on to say that since a memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation was signed in 2014, Izumiotsu and Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu have carried out various exchanges and cooperation activities. Information sharing was sustained even during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2022.

Thanks to support from Izumiotsu, Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu has made strong progress in attracting Japanese investment. Its connectivity with Japanese firms and investors has also been strongly fostered.

The province is very delighted to press on with economic ties with the Japanese city on the basis of the 2014 MoU and expand collaboration to other fields, especially agriculture, education, human resources development, cultural exchange, health care, and emergency response, he said.

The vice chairman expressed his belief that coming cooperation activities will help enhance mutual understanding and generate common prosperity, thus contributing to the Vietnam - Japan comprehensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world.

For his part, Minamide perceived that the two localities have built intensive relations in many areas such as investment, human resources development, education, and seaport, and reaped positive results.

The mayor said he hopes that this year, they will keep working together in existing areas and strengthen partnerships between their administrations and enterprises.

In September, Izumiotsu will hold a programme to introduce agricultural products of Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu to its residents so as to create a prerequisite for boosting the export of farm produce, a strength of the Vietnamese province, to the Japanese market, he added. - VNS