Vietnam wants to promote the relationship between San Francisco and Vietnamese localities in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular in areas that the US city has strengths such as economics, trade, science, technology, digital transformation, and climate change response, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco London Breed at a meeting on May 17 morning (US time).

Vietnam identifies San Francisco, where many Vietnamese people are living in, as a key area to promote relations between localities of the two countries, he said, adding that this is the reason why the city was the first place Vietnam opened its Consulate General in the US.

He suggested the two sides increase the exchange of delegations at all levels, promote people-to-people exchanges, cooperate in human resource training and healthcare capacity improvement, and encourage their enterprises to cooperate in investment and business. He also asked the city to continue creating favourable conditions for the community of about 50,000 Vietnamese people.

Mayor London Breed expressed her honour to welcome PM Chinh and the Vietnamese delegation to San Francisco which has had a twin relationship with Ho Chi Minh City from very early, even before the two countries officially normalised their relations.

Speaking highly of Vietnam’s socio-economic development achievements and pandemic prevention and reopening efforts, Breed said she wants to learn about Vietnam's measures to mobilise people to actively participate in the pandemic fight, especially in the vaccination drive.

Regarding this issue, PM Chinh informed the mayor of the main features of Vietnam's pandemic prevention strategy, in which Vietnam takes the people as the centre, the subject, the goal and the driving force; and put people's lives and health at first and foremost. Accordingly, all policies target the people and people must participate in the implementation, in which vaccination is both a right and a responsibility of each citizen.

He also took the occasion to invite Mayor Breed to visit Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City so as to continue promoting the bilateral relations, contributing to developing the Vietnam-US ties in a more substantive and effective manner.

Source: VNA