HCM City, UNDP Vietnam enhance development cooperation

This statement was made by Phan Van Mai, chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, during a meeting held alongside Ramla Khalidi, resident representative of UNDP Vietnam, who is on a working visit to the southern metropolis.

The municipal leader expressed his pleasure that UNDP has made great contributions to the country’s development after establishing a presence and running operations for over 45 years, from fine-tuning institutions and policies to carrying out development schemes, especially contributions to social affairs.

Ho Chi Minh City represents the country’s economic hub and boasts great openness, whilst being almost simultaneously sensitivity to the world economy, Mai said, adding that the city urgently needs co-operation, help, information sharing, and experts from UNDP in order to improve its ability to withstand external impacts and adaptability.

Furthermore, the southern city aspires to work alongside and share experience with UNDP in areas of interest, such as improving governance and administration capacity of the government apparatus, urban management, and solving challenging issues in urban management, climate change adaptation, and waste treatment.

Ho Chi Minh City clearly identifies sustainable development as a key goal for both itself and the country as a whole, with special attention being given to energy transition and circular economy.

Therefore, the southern city is looking forward to receiving co-operation and support from UNDP in this field, from suggestions on building a circular economy strategy, energy transformation, institutional building, technical infrastructure, and policies aimed at attracting resources for development.

For her part, Khalidi shared her impression about the city's dynamic and pioneering development across multiple fields, saying that the positive co-operation results already achieved between UNDP and Ho Chi Minh City will be the foundation for closer and more effective ties between UNDP and Ho Chi Minh City in the future.

UNDP established a presence in the country right after the end of the war, actively contributing to helping the nation overcome the consequences of the war, as well as throughout the process of national construction and development over the past 45 years.

Noting concerns and priorities of Ho Chi Minh City, the UNDP representative added that it some of the priority issues for UNDP Vietnam today include sustainable economic development and growth, net zero emission reduction, social development, policy co-operation, capacity building, and specific project implementation in different fields.

This shows that there are plenty of opportunities ahead for collaboration between UNDP and Ho Chi Minh City, especially in priority areas such as the circular economy, waste treatment, green energy transformation, and public governance.