PC Chairman Receiving Swiss Ambassador to Viet Nam

On the afternoon of June 22^nd, 2020, Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee – Le Quang Manh chaired and hosted a meeting for H.E. Ivo Sieber, Ambassador of Switzerland to Vietnam, who was accompanied by his staff from the Embassy and representatives of the World Bank in Vietnam.

Chairman Le Quang Manh awarded a souvenir to Ambassador Ivo Sieber at the courtesy call

Speaking at the event, Mr. Quang Manh expressed his happiness and high appreciation to the Embassy of Switzerland in Ha Noi and World Bank in Viet Nam for choosing Can Tho City to be the first place for their working visit in the COVID pandemic context.

He, then continued his part by highly evaluating the traditional and good partnership between Viet Nam and Switzerland in various sectors, namely politics, foreign diplomacy, culture, tourism, trade and investment.

For the cooperation relationship with Switzerland, the Chairman emphasized that Can Tho City has currently cooperated with Swiss organization – SECO (Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs) and the World Bank to implement the Can Tho Urban Development and Resilience Project. In addition, Swiss organizations and enterprises have had direct investment and development projects in Can Tho.

Nevertheless, the Chairman said there are a great number of potentials for both sides to boost and enhance such cooperation relationship in a number of areas (trade, tourism, hospitality management, climate change adaptation and capacity building) within their common interests and priorities.

 In response, Ambassador Ivo Sieber thanked his counterpart for the warm welcome and the overview of the cooperation status between Switzerland and Can Tho City via specific projects and sectors.

He mentioned that the Mekong Delta in general and Can Tho City in particular are one of important partners of both Switzerland and the World Bank. Therefore, he suggested the collaboration between the Embassy of Switzerland in Ha Noi and Can Tho City in organizing some events to celebrate the 50^th diplomatic anniversary between Switzerland and Viet Nam and the first three decades of the Swiss Technical and Economic cooperation with Vietnam in 2021.

The diplomat was confident that the bilateral relationship, especially the trade sector, would be strongly augmented and extended in a higher level thanks to the signing of the EVFTA.