Vietnam’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City, hopes to expand cooperation with the Greater Bay Area (GBA) – particularly with regards to infrastructure, food and finance, Vietnamese media reports.
This intent, stated by senior official Nguyen Van Dung at an investment forum last week, follows the Vietnamese city’s administrative merger with two neighbouring provinces, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Duong. Dung noted that infrastructure was a top priority for the newly enlarged jurisdiction.
“The coordinated development model between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao is an excellent example” for the city “in enhancing regional connectivity and expanding development space,” he said.
Dung said that Ho Chi Minh City also aimed to bolster “soft connectivity” with the GBA, particularly through collaborations around artificial intelligence’s use in urban management, building a big data ecosystem, and implementing a platform to facilitate cross-border payments.
[See more: The GBA is seeking closer trade ties with Vietnam]
He also noted that the city was looking to Hong Kong for inspiration. “Hong Kong’s development journey, especially its extensive application of green finance toward becoming a sustainable, green financial hub, provides valuable lessons,” he said.
Food was another area of interest and Dung highlighted Vietnam’s Mekong Delta as a key food supplier to the GBA. He called for deeper cooperation in areas like agricultural transport and processing technologies to give Vietnamese businesses better access to the GBA market.
Also speaking at the forum was Jonathan Choi, chairman of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Bay Area Entrepreneurs Alliance and the Hong Kong-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce. He pointed out the complementary strengths of a number of GBA cities, noting that they formed the foundation for “an effective bridge between China and Vietnam.”
According to the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality, Guangdong Province’s trade volume with Vietnam as a whole accounts for about a fifth of total trade between China and Vietnam. Between January and June 2024, two-way trade between Guangdong and Vietnam increased by almost 30 percent year-on-year.
