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| President Obama is welcomed at Noi Bai Airport on May 22 evening. — Photo dantri.com.vn |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — US President Obama plans to meet young entrepreneurs and members of the local business community at Dreamplex, a co-working space for startups in HCM City on May 24.
It is included in the US president's three-day official visit to Việt Nam which begins Monday. Obama is the third consecutive US president to visit Việt Nam, following Bill Clinton in 2000 and George W.Bush in 2006.
Before the meeting at Dreamplex, Obama will visit the Ngoc Hoang Pagoda in District 1, which is over 100 years old and a cultural symbol of the city.
He will then meet young entrepreneurs and members of the business community at Dreamplex, which is inspired by the model of a common workspace, WeWork, popular in the United States.
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| Obama plans to talk with local enterprises at the common space in DreamPlex. — Photo DreamPlex |
Vo Minh Toan, head of customer care in Dreamplex, said the co-working space had been checked thoroughly in the last three months by the US side ahead of Obama's visit. In April, Dreamplex, with three floors of 500sq. m. each on 21 Nguyen Trung Ngan Street, District 1, had hosted the US Consulate dinner, the American Innovation Roadshow 2016 and Google's meeting with local startups.
Two-way trade between Vietnam and the United States has soared to US$45 billion, a 20-fold increase since 1995.
Ahead of the visit, Obama, on the back of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal which will soon be enacted, said trade between the two countries will accelerate. He added that the visit will be a driving force for science, technology and education cooperation.
Once the TPP comes into effect, the US president believes that two-way trade will surge in both quantity and quality, with growth expected to be some 20 per cent per year. He specifically referred to science, education and people-to-people exchange as the promising areas of collaboration.
In Ha Noi, AmCham and VCCI are organising a business-related event to celebrate the continued progress and momentum in the bilateral trade and investment relationship on May 23 at 5pm.
A number of important issues will be highlighted, including the TPP, climate change and clean energy. In addition, a number of Vietnamese member companies will be signing agreements during the event.
Although US President Obama is not attending the event, some 400 guests will hear from members of his Cabinet, the House, the Senate and senior Vietnamese government officials.— VNS