At the meeting, Mr. Tran Viet Truong, Deputy Secretary of the municipal Party Committee of Can Tho, Chairman of the municipal People's Committee of Can Tho, was delighted with Mr. Pier Giorgio Aliberti’s visit to Can Tho city. Mr. Tran Viet Truong said that Can Tho city is currently a center of trade, service, education, and health of the Mekong Delta region. Can Tho has the potentials and strengths suitable for EU countries to cooperate and invest in the city. As of November 2020, Can Tho had counted 85 FDI projects valued at 725.43 million USD, including eight worth 73.08 million USD from the EU. Specifically, France (03 projects), Germany (03 projects), Netherlands (01 project), and Spain (01 project).

Furthermore, EU countries have supported the city of Can Tho several ODA projects, NGO projects. Particularly, there are the “Drainage and wastewater treatment project” financed by German state-owned development bank (KfW), the “river embankment project to help the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho cope with climate change” financed by the French Development Agency (AFD), the “Can Tho Oncology Hospital project” of the Government of Hungary, the “Automatic garbage collection” of the Netherlands’ Ocean Cleanup (TOC), etc.

In terms of the positive results from the cooperation relationship between Can Tho city and the European Union, Chairman Tran Viet Truong called for investment and cooperation in high-tech infrastructure to adapt to climate change, information technology, high-quality personnel training in health care, and education through research programs. He also expected the Ambassador of EU to support Can Tho's enterprises to well exploit the European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

At the reception, Mr. Pier Giorgio Aliberti, Ambassador of the European Union (EU) in Vietnam, thanked the warm welcome of the city leaders and expressed his joy to visit the city of Can Tho

For his part, Mr. Pier Giorgio Aliberti highly evaluated the outstanding economic development and development potential of Can Tho city as a major hub of the Mekong Delta region. He said that the European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, ratified in August, offers an opportunity for Mekong Delta cities and provinces to strengthen trade ties with the EU in such areas as fishery and agriculture. Moreover, the EU is preparing to launch a program to support developing countries in the 2021-2027 period, with the goal of a green transition process and closed economic development. Mr. Pier Giorgio Aliberti hoped that the program will promote the export of agricultural products to Europe, strengthen the capacity of enterprises and support the economy of the Mekong Delta in general and Can Tho city, in particular, to develop sustainably.