Seoul mayor to visit Singapore, Vietnam in 7-day visit on inter-city cooperation

▲ This photo provided by the city government of Seoul shows Mayor Oh Se-hoon. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Seoul mayor-overseas trip

Seoul mayor to visit Singapore, Vietnam in 7-day visit on inter-city cooperation

SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will leave for Singapore this week on a seven-day trip that includes attendance at an international city forum in the city-state and talks with his counterpart in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, officials said Thursday.

During the trip starting Friday, the Seoul mayor will attend the World Cities Summit to be held in Singapore from Sunday-Wednesday at the invitation of the event's organizer.

The biennial summit is a platform for government leaders and industry experts to address livable and sustainable city challenges, share integrated urban solutions and forge new partnerships.

Oh will talk about policies and attractions of Seoul during the summit to be joined by officials from some 90 cities and plans to promote Seoul's digitization and carbon-neutrality policies in his speech during the event's separate mayors' forum.

The Seoul mayor will also meet with government officials of Singapore, including Minister for National Development Desmond Lee, and visit real-estate development sites in the city-state, according to the officials.

Oh will then fly to Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday for a meeting with Phan Van Mai, the chairman of the city's municipal committee, on ways to expand partnership between their cities over future growth engines and job creation.

The Seoul mayor also plans to forge a partnership with Vietnam's science and technology ministry with a goal of helping South Korean startups make inroads into the Vietnamese market.

Hosting a tourism promotion event in the Vietnamese city, the mayor will also meet with local citizens and tourist industry officials to promote tourism to the South Korean capital.

"As Singapore and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City are strategically important cities and markets with high potential for future growth and job creation, I will further strengthen Seoul's cooperation with them so as to help expand Korean firms' inroads into them," Oh said.

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