The Mekong Connect 2021 forum will be held in HCM City for the first time on December 17 with a focus on measures to revive the economy and enhance linkages between HCM City and other provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta.

To be held at HCM City’s Reunification Palace, the event, with the theme ‘Economic recovery and development linkage in the new normal,’ will be both offline and online.

Vu Kim Hanh, chairwoman of the Business Association of Vietnamese High Quality Products, said the forum would be attended by 250 businesspeople, farmers, representatives of co-operatives, officials from ministries, HCM City and the Mekong Delta, local and foreign experts and entrepreneurs, representatives of diplomatic missions, and executives from start-ups.

They will discuss two major topics, economic recovery and development linkages in the new normal between HCM City and provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta 2021, she said.

The forum will include an online discussion in which Thai, Philippine, Malaysian, and Indonesian businesspeople will share experiences in investing in agriculture, and four panel discussions on upholding grassroots medical networks for the prevention of COVID-19 and ensuring safety while doing business, reviving the supply chain between HCM City and the Mekong Delta, developing human resources for agriculture and the Mekong Delta, and policies and issues involved in the linkage between the city and the delta.

There will be an exchange with the winners of the Innovative Agricultural Startup Project Contest, an exhibition of agricultural products and consultancies on meeting standards that enable products to enter supply chains and be exported and showcasing of new processing technologies.

The forum will be held by the city Department of Industry and Trade, the Business Association of Vietnamese High Quality Products and the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Can Tho branch.

The annual forum was previously held in Can Tho, Ben Tre, and Dong Thap. — VNS