The statement was made by Deputy Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Tai while meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State Claudia McMurray on Nov. 20.

Mr Tai said HCM City attaches the importance to protecting the environment and has worked out solutions and projects to treat wastes, reduce exhaust fumes, noise, and river pollution, as well as programmes to raise public awareness of environment protection.

Ms McMurray said the US-Vietnam cooperation in environment has been developing with a number of researches and exchanges of experiences to help Vietnam cope with climate change.

She suggested Vietnam pay more attention to balancing economic development with environment protection, and said that the US side is eager to share experiences and give technical assistance to Vietnam in dealing with the issue.

Exchanging views on wildlife protection and the fight against illegal trade of wild animals, the host and guest agreed that the two sides should organise more training courses to provide knowledge and skills in protection and rescue of wild animals, prevention of illegal trade, and help raise people’s awareness.

During her five-day working visit to Vietnam starting on Nov. 18, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and Environment and Science also attended a ceremony to inaugurate the Mekong Delta Research and Global Observation Network (Dragon Institute) in Can Tho city on Nov. 20.

She also had meetings with officials from local rangers’ service, environmental police and custom officers to discuss cooperation on personnel training and law enforcement in the field of wildlife protection.

During her stay in Vietnam, Ms McMurray will visit the Cat Tien National Park in southern Dong Nai province and central Lam Dong province, wildlife projects financed by Winrock International, and environment research projects conducted by the Colorado University’s experts.