Officials from Ho Chi Minh City are visiting Japan to call forJapanese businesses, including those from the Kansai region, to investin the city, according to the Sai gon Giai phong (Liberated Sai gon)daily.

Le Thanh Hai, Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, who led 30businesses from the city to visit Japan , met with Japanese leaders andenterprises of Kansai Economic Federation (Kankeiren) in Osakaprefecture on Oct. 11.

Vietnam and Japan holdgreat potential and opportunities for cooperation in high technology,Hai said, noting that HCM City encourages investment in supportindustries and human resource development.

Whilepointing out difficulties in infrastructure and human resources faced bythe city, Hai made a commitment to create suitable conditions forJapanese businesses to invest in the city.

The paperreported that Japanese businesses asked HCM City leaders to payattention to administrative reform and improve the legal environment andprocedures to speed up cooperation and investment between the twosides, not only in economic trade but also in tourism andpeople-to-people exchanges.

They also raised concerns over the shortage of electricity and water in the Vietnamese city.

Kankeiren will take part in an economic exchange in Vietnam ’s central coastal city of Da Nang on November 20.

Earlier, the Vietnamese delegation held talks with the Osaka citymayor Hiramatsu Kunio and Osaka prefecture’s deputy governor KimuraShinsaku, calling on municipal and provincial leaders to work as abridge to assist Japanese businesses to invest in HCM City .

Later in the day, the delegation made a fact-finding tour of anenvironmentally friendly treatment plant in Osaka prefecture./.