Hanoi (VNA) – Chairmanof the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung and Mayor of the US city ofLos Angeles Eric Garcetti have agreed to cooperate in addressing environmentand transportation issues and develop Hanoi into a smart city.

During a working session in Hanoion August 28, Chung briefed the guest about the city’s socio-economicachievements after 10 years of adjusting its administrative boundary.

Chung said Hanoi now has a totalarea of over 3,300 sq.km with a population of more than 10 million. Since 2008,its economy has expanded by 2.5 times, average income per capita has risen2.8-fold while the number of foreign tourists to the city surged to 4.95million in 2017 from 1.3 million in 2008.

The rate of poor households inthe city has dropped to 1.68 percent, which is expected to fall to below 1percent by the end of this year, he said.

The chairman suggested signing acooperation agreement, with priority given to urban issues, tourism and smartcity development as Hanoi is stepping up the building of an e-government.

Garcetti, for his part, said LosAngeles is ready to help Hanoi improve air quality and reduce environmentalpollution.

He proposed the two cities establishtwinning ties to offer mutual support in many fields, initially in dealing withtransport congestion, reducing pollution, building smart cities in tandem withcultural and people-to-people exchanges.

Los Angeles wants to send itsstudents to Hanoi and other Vietnamese cities and provinces for exchange, hesaid.

Agreeing with the proposal ofsetting up twinning relations between Hanoi and Los Angeles, Chung expressedreadiness to welcome Los Angeles students and hoped that the two cities willconduct regular exchanges to expand friendship ties between the two cities andthe two nations in general.-VNA