HCM City (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Duong Ngoc Hai hosted a reception on September 27 for a visiting delegation from Cuba’s Santiago de Cuba province led by Vice Governor Waldis Gonzalez Peinado.

Hai affirmed that HCM City attaches great importance to and has active cooperation with the Cuban Government and localities, especially in the fields of education, health care, trade, and people-to-people exchange.

He noted that trade between HCM City and localities in Cuba reached nearly 8 million USD in the first eight months of this year. The two sides have regularly organised delegation exchanges at all levels, he added.

The municipal leader said that HCM City is a regional connection centre and an international trade hub, owning Tan Son Nhat International Airport and Cat Lai Port, the largest port in the country, while Santiago de Cuba is the second largest province in Cuba, with strengths in agriculture, industry, tourism and culture.

Santiago de Cuba's seaport plays an important role in international trade, serving as the gateway connecting Cuba to the world, he noted, holding that the two localities share many similarities on potential, strength and development need.

In 2007, HCM City and the Administration of Santiago de Cuba signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on promoting their friendly and cooperative relations. However, to date, bilateral collaboration activities have not been carried out.

Therefore, Hai proposed that the two sides resume exchanges and take steps towards the signing of a MoU to establish a new friendly and cooperative relationship, which clearly states priority areas and includes specific cooperation programmes.

For his part, Waldis Gonzalez Peinado said that this HCM City trip to attend the HCM City Friendship Dialogue and Economic Forum has provided the delegation with many practical experience, and enabled them to seek potential for cooperation with HCM City.

Santiago de Cuba province has an important strategic position, not only for Cuba but also for the Caribbean region. It is an industrial hub for important industries, he said, asserting that the province and HCM City have many similarities on potential and strength for cooperation.

Affirming the province’s readiness to restart the signed MoU, Waldis Gonzalez Peinado suggested that the two sides quickly sign specific cooperation contents and implement them drastically, while grasping advantages from similarities and potentials to soon put cooperation into practice.

꧙ He said he hopes that HCM City will send a delegation to the 2025 Caribbean Expo in Cuba, and help connect more provinces and cities in the southern region of Vietnam with Santiago de Cuba to explore cooperation opportunities./.