Can Tho eyes multi-faceted cooperation with Netherlands
Vice Chairman of the Can Tho People’s Committee Nguyen Ngoc He had a working session with the Dutch Consul General in HCM City, Daniel Stork on May 10, during which the two sides discussed ways to boost cooperation in infrastructure development, climate change adaptation, and hi-tech agriculture.
According to He, the Mekong Delta city has strength in agriculture, but the locality in particular and the Mekong Delta region in general are suffering from negative impacts from climate change, especially flooding and saltwater intrusion.
He suggested the two sides expand cooperation in the areas where the Netherlands has experience, thus Can Tho can learn from experience of the country.
The Can Tho official expressed the hope that the Consul General will help introduce Can Tho's potential and investment attraction policies to Dutch business associations and investors, thus promoting the locality’s exports such as garments, footwear, agricultural and aquatic products to the European country.
According to He, Can Tho is calling for potential investors to invest in the fields of agro-fishery processing, manufacturing industry, hi-tech agriculture, information technology, infrastructure construction, and trade.
For his part, Stork said that many Dutch enterprises have strengths in responding to and adapting to inundation caused by sea level rise. The Netherlands is also the world's second largest exporter of agricultural products thanks to the application of many high-tech agriculture models, which help reduce labour costs and post-harvest losses.
The Netherlands is willing to cooperate with Can Tho in the above-mentioned areas, the diplomat said, adding that a number of Dutch organisations such as TOC, VEI, and Blue Deal, through non-governmental projects, are supporting Can Tho in models related to environmental protection, climate change adaptation, and water management. He named as an example a project to automatically collect floating garbage in rivers in Can Tho city worth US$630,000 funded by the Ocean Cleanup (TOC) organization.
Statistics from the municipal Department of Foreign Affairs, Can Tho’s export turnover to the Netherlands reached US$28.96 million, with the main items being rice, seafood, farm produce, and processed agricultural products and foods, and textiles among others. Meanwhile, the city spent US$1.07 million on importing goods from the European country, mainly pharmaceutical materials.