The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will help HCM City build a smart city plan.

IFC vice president for Asia and Pacific Nena Stoiljkovic said this to municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Le Thanh Liem on April 12.

At the meeting in the southern economic hub of Viet Nam, Liem thanked IFC for supporting the city’s leaders in their working visit to the United States in late 2017 during which HCM City and IFC signed a cooperation agreement.

Liem asked IFC to help HCM City learn from the experience of other countries around the world in building a smart city, especially in the formation of a centre for research, simulation, forecast, and building of socio-economic development strategies.

He sought financial assistance from IFC in carrying out a feasibility study on building a highly interactive creativity centre linking districts 2 and 9 as well as Thu Duc district to provide favourable conditions for the local start-up community to cooperate and share their experience.

HCM City also looks forward to IFC’s consultancy on the implementation of public-private partnership (PPP) projects, Liem said. He invited IFC to attend an international workshop on State budget use and PPP held in coordination with World Bank in HCM City in May.

Accepting the invitation to attend the workshop, Stoiljkovic said IFC had high-quality specialists who were willing to advise HCM City in building PPP infrastructure and using capital in PPP projects effectively. Cooperation between IFC and HCM City will open up new approaches in development cooperation and sponsorship, she said.

Expressing her interest in bilateral cooperation, Stoiljkovic committed that she and her colleagues would work with HCM City to implement the cooperation memorandum inked in late 2017. She also affirmed that IFC would be a good partner of the city in supporting the development of private businesses.

She highly evaluated the city’s strategic vision and efforts in building a smart city, noting that IFC will help it study smart city building projects. She said the construction of financial and high-technology development centres was important for developing a smart city as they would result in connectivity and promote other fields, such as finance and human resources training.

Stoiljkovic also expressed her delight at HCM City’s selection of Standard & Poor’s Rating Service as the consultant for credit and financial management rating. She said this move was a fine beginning for the city to access loans without the Government’s guarantee, thereby helping to mobilise capital for local development projects in future. — VNS