HCM City, US seek to boost ties in human resources development

ABO/NDO – Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan received Senior Vice President of the US-ASEAN Business Council (UABC) Michael Michalak on June 17 to discuss ways to bolster cooperation in improving the quality of local human resources. 

Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan (R) meets with received Senior Vice President of the US-ASEAN Business Council Michael Michalak on June 17 (Photo: VNA)

At the meeting, the host highly valued the efforts of Michalak, who is also a former US ambassador to Vietnam, in helping promote bilateral relations in a result-oriented manner.

He noted that on the basis of the two countries’ sound relations, partnership between Ho Chi Minh City and the US has also reaped good outcomes, especially in trade, investment and education.

Politburo member Nhan asked the UABC Vice President to continue helping US businesses to learn about the local investment climate, and to invest in Ho Chi Minh City’s prioritised fields, such as smart city building, scientific-technological development and innovation, thereby contributing to the substantive cooperation between the countries.

For his part, Michalak voiced his delight at the US’s growing relations with Vietnam, noting that over the last 10 years, more than 80,000 Vietnamese students have enrolled in secondary schools and higher educational institutions in the US.

There are over 30,000 Vietnamese students in his country at present, ranking first among Southeast Asian countries and fifth in the world in terms of foreign student sources in the US, he noted.

He also asked Ho Chi Minh City’s authorities to continuecreating favourable conditions for US firms to invest in different areas, especially in education, training and human resourcequality improvement.

At the event, the two sides discussed ways to step up cooperation programmes and projects on training high-quality human resources.

The US is now a leading trade partner of Ho Chi Minh City as bilateral trade reached US$8.2 billion in 2018. With nearly 400 projects worth a total of almost US$1 billion, it ranks 10th among the countries and territories investing in the city.

(Source: NDO)