Attending this event were Mr. Chaman Lal - Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. Mark Garnier - Trade Envoy of the UK Prime Minister, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Long - Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK, leaders of Vietnamese localities including Ha Noi and provinces of Ha Nam, Hoa Binh, Lam Dong, Kien Giang, and Vinh Phuc, more than 100 representatives of associations, organizations and businesses in UK.

In his welcoming speech, Mayor Chaman Lal emphasized that, Birmingham is particularly interested in fostering friendly relations and building cooperative relationships with localities around the world, including Vietnam. He also pointed out many potential areas of cooperation with Vietnamese localities such as science and technology, high technology, artificial intelligence, industry...

Overview of the "Connecting Vietnam and the West Midlands" event (Photo: Hanoitimes)

Trade Envoy Mark Garnier affirmed that the West Midlands region prioritizes development in many fields such as industry, services, education, culture... Mr. Garnier expressed hope for the visit of local Vietnamese representatives is an opportunity for the parties to improve mutual understanding, contribute to promoting investment and trade, and open up good opportunities for localities, businesses, and investors of the two countries to exchange, learn, connect, and cooperate.

Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Hoang Long reviewed the positive results in Vietnam - UK cooperation over the past 50 years. The Ambassador emphasized that with the UK joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the bilateral trade will continue to increase.

Vietnamese delegates attending the seminar were also provided with information about the list of projects calling for investment in localities of Vietnam in the fields of industrial production, high quality agriculture, renewable energy, education, human resource training, tourism, infrastructure development, smart cities...

The representative of BP Group emphasized that it is a potential partner of Vietnamese businesses in energy transition, sharing experiences in investing in clean energy industrial development projects applying advanced technology. Representative of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce informed about the city's cooperation opportunities with Vietnamese localities in the fields of education, training, high technology..., taking advantage of opportunities from the Free Trade Agreement Vietnam - UK. 

Previously, on 9 October 2023, the delegations of Vietnamese localities visited and worked with the Vietnamese Embassy in the UK, visited a number of production and business facilities and worked with partners in UK.

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