At the meeting, the provincial leaders briefed the Japanese side of the province’s potential, opportunities, development plans as well as difficulties and its desire for support from Japan .

Representatives of the two organisations held that the province holds great possibilities for economic breakthroughs and suggested Ba Ria-Vung Tau set up an information channel with Japan in the first quarter of 2012 to jointly build cooperation programmes and tasks.

They also stressed the need for Ba Ria-Vung Tau to inform the Japanese side about its focused areas so that Japan has plans to dispatch experts and consultancy firms to assist the province.

Prof. Yoshiharu Tsuboi, JICA’s senior advisor, recommended Ba Ria-Vung Tau to consider fostering connections between localities while building its development plans.

Regarding Thi Vai-Cai Mep seaport, he said the province needs to improve managerial and competitive capacity to regional and international standards.

JICA and VDF advisors said the Japanese government is mulling over the provision of official development assistance to fund construction of Phuoc An bridge linking the Thi Vai-Cai Mep seaport with southern inter-regional expressway.