At the meeting, Mr. Tran Viet Truong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Can Tho city was delighted to welcome Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti and the European Union Delegation to Vietnam. Chairman Tran Viet Truong said that Can Tho city is now opening borders for tourism and economic recovery. The city is also taking advantage of Resolution No. 45/2022/QH dated January 11th, 2022 of the National Assembly on piloting several specific mechanisms and policies for the development of the Mekong Delta city, and some key socio-economic development tasks for 2022 in order to maximize the city’s potentials and strengths, contributing strongly to the development of Can Tho in the coming time. Therefore, Can Tho city is in dire need of domestic and foreign investors, including member countries of the European Union.

According to the Department of Foreign Affairs of Can Tho city, last year, Can Tho city exported 125.92 million USD worth of goods to the EU in 2021, mainly rice, fishery products, farm produce, processed agricultural products, apparel, pharmaceutical, veterinary medicine, and handicrafts. Meanwhile, its imports from the EU stood at 14.45 million USD, mainly medicinal materials, agricultural and veterinary medicine, and fabric. Over the past years, Can Tho city has carried out many investment cooperation programs and friendship exchanges with EU countries like France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, and Norway.

Specifically, Can Tho city has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a number of localities such as Nice and La Seyne-Sur-Mer cities (France); Kaposvar (Hungary); the city of Ruse (Bulgaria); the city of Plzeň (Czech Republic). For other EU countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, and Norway, Can Tho has also implemented many practical activities in several fields such as health, education, agriculture, environment, etc. Particularly in the field of environment, the Mekong city of Can Tho currently has a river embankment project funded by ODA from the French Government to help the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho cope with climate change (currently under implementation). Can Tho also worked with the Netherlands on implementing NGO projects such as automatic garbage collection on the river in Can Tho city; the WaterWorX project “Towards Climate Resilient Water Supply in the Southwestern Mekong Delta”; the Blue Dragon project (aim at improving the capacity of water resources management in the localities in the Mekong Delta).

Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti, Head of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam (Center) at the meeting

Regarding the direction of cooperation in the coming time, Chairman Tran Viet Truong expressed his hope that Mr. Giorgio Aliberti and EU ambassadors will help Can Tho introduce its investment potential and opportunities to EU business associations and investors; provide information about their markets’ standards, preferential tariffs, demand, business culture, and expos for local businesses; and organize mutual visits to learn about each other’s investment environment. The city also hopes to receive more technologies transferred from the EU, particularly in its priority areas such as information and communications, industry, agriculture, construction, transport, health care, natural resources and environment, etc.

On behalf of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam, Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti highly appreciated the potential and development opportunities of Can Tho city. Ambassador Aliberti said Can Tho city, as well as localities in the Mekong Delta region, are facing many challenges due to climate change which is threatening the livelihoods of millions of people such as drought, saltwater intrusion, land subsidence, coastal erosion, water sea rise... Meanwhile, this region is the agricultural and aqua-cultural hub of Vietnam.

Therefore, there needs to be stronger cooperation between the parties for climate change adaptation and sustainable urban development in the near future. Ambassador Giorgio Aliberti hopes that in the coming time, the two sides will continue to promote development cooperation in various areas, especially in the fields of industry, clean energy, infrastructure, transportation. Furthermore, he affirmed that he would continue to act as a bridge to promote the most practical exchanges and cooperation between the member countries of the European Union and Can Tho city, especially in the field of climate change adaptation.