HCM City(VNA) – Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan hosteda reception for outgoing UK Ambassador to Vietnam Giles Lever in the city onJune 11.

Nhan highly valuedcontributions of the UK Ambassador to the development of the two countries’ties.

He proposed that theUK assist Ho Chi Minh City in developing a smart city, noting that the city hasplanned to build an administrative centre in the Thu Thiem urban area and acontest on designs for the centre will be held soon.

The municipal leader alsohailed contributions of the UK ambassador in improving Vietnam’s legal system,including anti-corruption regulations.

He underscored thatthe Vietnamese Government has paid due attention to transparency, whilelistening to public opinions and giving prominence to the role of the press infighting corruption.

Ambassador Lever noted that the UK-Vietnam cooperation has been deepened overthe past four years in the traditional areas of trade and education, andexpanded to other fields such as anti-corruption.

He spoke highly ofVietnam’s efforts in strengthening the prevention and fight of corruption andencouraging transparency as well as the press’s involvement in anti-corruption,which is an important factor to avoid corruption.

In late 2018, the UKwill launch a programme to give technical assistance to Vietnam in improvingbusiness environment, intelligence property, capital management, and finance,he said.

Lever added that HoChi Minh City is one of the 40 cities around the world receiving support fromthe UK to build smart cities.-VNA