HCM City (VNA) –The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will help Ho Chi Minh City to builda smart city plan, IFC Vice President for Asia and PacificNena Stoiljkovic told Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee LeThanh Liem on April 12.

At the meeting in the southern economic hub ofVietnam, Liem thanked the IFC for supporting the city’s leaders during theirworking visit to the US in late 2017 during which HCM City and the IFC signed acooperation agreement.

He asked the IFC to help HCM City learn smartcity building experience from countries around the world, especially in theformation of a centre for research, simulation, forecast and building ofsocio-economic development strategies.

Liem proposed the IFC provide financial aid to assistHCM City in carrying out a feasibility study on the building of a highlyinteractive creativity centre linking districts 2, 9 and Thu Duc district so asto provide favourable conditions for the local start-up community to shareexperience and cooperate.

HCM City also looks forward to the IFC’s consultancyon the implementation of public-private partnership (PPP) projects, theofficial said, inviting the IFC to attend an international workshop on statebudget use and PPP held in coordination with the World Bank in the city in May.

Expressing her interest in bilateralcooperation, Stoiljkovic vowed that she and her colleagues will work with HCMCity to implement the cooperation memorandum inked in late 2017. She alsoaffirmed that the IFC will be a good partner of the city in supporting privatebusinesses’ development.

She highly evaluated the city’s strategic visionand efforts in building a smart city, noting that the IFC will help it studysmart city building projects. She added the construction of financial and hightechnology development centres is important to developing a smart city as theywill create connectivity and promote other fields like finance and humanresources training.

Accepting the invitation to attend the workshopon PPP, Stoiljkovic said the IFC has high-quality specialists who are ready toadvise HCM City in building the PPP structure and using capital in PPP projectseffectively. Cooperation between the IFC and HCM City will open up newapproaches in development cooperation and sponsorship, she said.

The IFC Vice President also expressed herdelight at HCM City’s selection of Standard & Poor’s Rating Service as theconsultant for credit and financial management rating. She considered this moveas a fine beginning for the city to access loans without the Government’sguarantee, thereby helping to mobilise capital for local development projectsin the future.-VNA