Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh returned to Vietnam on November 8, successful concluding his four-day working visit to Singapore.

The visit was made at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law K. Shanmugam as part of the S. R. Nathan Fellowship.

During his stay, Deputy PM Ninh paid a courtesy visit to Singaporean PM Lee Hsien Loong, and held meetings with Deputy PM and Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam, along with senior figures from the ministries of Home Affairs, Trade and Industry, the Environment and Foreign Affairs.

During the meetings, both sides expressed their delight at the strongly growing ties between the two countries in all fields, from defence-security, to economics, education and culture.

They agreed that the newly-established strategic partnership, reached during Prime Minister Lee’s visit to Vietnam in September this year, is a historical milestone in bilateral ties, opening up new opportunities for the two sides to further expand and deepen their work together.

PM Lee pledged to work closely with Vietnam to encourage Singaporean enterprises to invest in Phu Quoc Island, calling on the country to create favourable conditions and supply clear information on investment policies, administration procedures and land planning in Phu Quoc for the enterprises.

The Singaporean officials all stressed the importance of human resources training in the context of international economic integration, declaring that Singapore is dedicated to education and training cooperation with Vietnam and will help the country in training the skilled workers of tomorrow.

On regional and international ties, the two sides said they are pleased with their bilateral coordination within the ASEAN framework, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Asia-Europe Economic Meeting (ASEM), and the United Nations.

They agreed to continue helping each other closely on issues relating to the region’s peace and stability, including disputes in the East Sea.

The Singaporean side pledged to continue cooperation with and support for Vietnam in the negotiation process for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to ensure any agreement is fairly balanced and suitably beneficial to all parties, especially developing ones.-VNA