Da Nang and UK city Birmingham have agreed to minutes on co-operation in five key sectors – economics, trade and investment; digital infrastructure construction, innovation and technology and Fintech; education and training; sustainable development and circular economy; sports, tourism and cultural exchanges – during the city’s working visit to the UK early this week.
Vice chairman of Da Nang city’s people’s committee Ho Ky Minh urged the Birmingham authorities and partners to launch direct flights between the two cities, and support Da Nang in investment promotion and business links in trade, tourism, high-tech industries and information technology.
Minh also asked for co-operation with Aston University in building links with universities in Da Nang for international finance human resources education and training, and development of an international finance centre in Da Nang.
SHB Da Nang football club also seeks co-operation with the English Premier League club Aston Villa in youth football and coaching training as well as physical improvement for Da Nang football, according to Minh.
In a working session in London with CityUK, the industry-led body representing UK-based financial and related professional services, Da Nang asked CityUK to set up connections with financial institutions in the UK and support the central city in forming a regional international financial and business centre in Da Nang.
The International Da Nang-UK University and Newborns Viet Nam, a UK registered charity, have been working on human resource training and a neonatal nurse training programme, respectively.
In 2019, Joseph C. Lewis, a British businessman and investor, paid a visit to Da Nang for a proposal to develop an international marina on the Han River.
In the working session in Geneva, Switzerland, the leadership of Da Nang offered co-operation opportunities in the economy and finance as the city expects to make it a rendezvous and financial services centre supplying the Asia-Pacific.
Tourism property projects are built on coastal areas in Da Nang. The city is planning an international finance hub in the tourism beach area. VNS Photo Cong Thanh
Da Nang is planing an international finance hub on a 6.17ha coastal area in Son Tra peninsula, and reserved a 62ha land area for expansion in the future.
Director of the city’s Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) Huynh Thi Lien Phuong said the plan for the Da Nang International Financial Hub has emerged, but it needs approval from the government on preferential policies and operation mechanisms.
She said an area on the beachfront at Vo Nguyen Giap and Vo Van Kiet streets would be a site for a trading centre, casino, high-end entertainment and luxury apartments in the finance-trade-casino complex of the future.
Da Nang’s people’s committee has submitted a plan for a duty-free zone on 151ha at the end of Ba Na-Suoi Mo Road – 30km southwest of the centre and near the Ba Na Hills resort, for a trade complex, entertainment sites, duty-free shops, a logistics hub, warehouses, healthcare services, an R&D centre, international education centre, medical school and exhibition centre.
The first downtown duty-free shop was launched at the beachfront Crowne Plaza Da Nang resort in Ngu Hanh Son District last year.
A series of investment and tourism promotions were held in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, India, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore between 2021-23.
Da Nang sought investment from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Japan in two promotions earlier this year.
The city has been designing the 1,100ha Hi-Tech Park as Viet Nam’s ‘Silicon Valley’ to earn revenue of $1.5 billion each year with 25,000 jobs and a satellite city of 100,000 people.
The US-based aviation firm Universal Alloy Corporation (UAC) put the Sunshine Aerospace Components Factory into operation in the first phase in 2020.
Korea’s LG Electronics also debuted its research and development (R&D) centre –its second in Viet Nam – in Da Nang.
CMC Corporation, the second-largest information and communications technology (ICT) group in Viet Nam, plans to build the Da Nang-based CMC creative space – a digital hub in the Asia-Pacific region – with an estimated investment of $522 million.
Samsung Vietnam has launched its Innovation Campus in Da Nang.
Six IZs and a high-tech park have attracted 503 projects, including 130 FDI projects worth $1.8 billion and VND27.6 trillion ($1.2 billion) from domestic investors. — VNS