On June 7, Can Tho’s chair Tran Viet Truong visited Aviva at the invitation of the billionaire. 

Accompanying the Can Tho’s chair were Vietnamese businessmen who are close partners of the British billionaire. One of them was Nguyen Khanh Tung, head of the Can Tho City Institute for Socio - Economic Development Studies, who once received Lewis during his visit to Can Tho in 2019. At that time, Tung was Director of the Can Tho Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Welcoming Can Tho’s high ranking official, the British billionaire said he was touched by the warm and sincere greetings of Can Tho people and stressed that he always feels as at home when visiting Can Tho.

On the lobby of the Aviva yacht hung a banner with a rooster – the symbol of Tottenham Hotspur Club, and the message "Welcome Home".

Chair of Can Tho City Tran Viet Truong thanked Joe Lewis and presented a rice-made picture of the billionaire’s portrait in front of the Can Tho bridge, and a folk song.

He said three years ago, he also received a rice-made picture from a friend in Can Tho. It is a picture of him sitting and grinding flour. The picture hangs on a wall on Aviva.

During the talk with the billionaire, Truong spoke about Can Tho’s development after the months of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and the city’s economic recovery plan after the pandemic. He said that business and service activities have been restored as people have been vaccinated.

Truong said Can Tho has great advantages to develop, including peaceful waterways, especially the famous Mekong River. However, the advantages have not been fully exploited. Truong hopes that the billionaire can make suggestions for Can Tho to develop better.

The billionaire said that there should be a roadmap for exploitation and development of a waterway economy. When calling for investment, there should be good planning so as to obtain an ecosystem of items connected with each other, from infrastructure to wharves to hotels, yachts and local special tourism products.

Lewis invited Truong to visit a yacht center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the US, and the Bahamas.

According to the Sunday Times in 2021, Joe Lewis, 85, had total assets of 4.33 billion pounds. He is a major shareholder and owner of Tottenham Hotspur.

Hoai Thanh