Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan (Photo: VNA) The following is the full text of the interview.
Reporter: Thisyear marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and 10th anniversary ofstrategic partnership between Singapore and Vietnam. How do you evaluate theSingapore-Vietnam relations in the past half century, especially in the lastdecade? What should the two countries do to further our bilateral cooperationand to advance the development of each country?
FM Vivian Balakrishnan: Theties between Singapore and Vietnam have grown from strength to strength sincewe established diplomatic relations 50 years ago. We are longstanding friendsand close partners that enjoy wide-ranging cooperation in many areas, bothbilaterally and at multilateral fora. I am heartened that the bilateralrelationship has continued to expand and evolve to tackle new challenges overthe past decade. Our linkages are particularly strong in trade and investment.The 12 Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIPs)across Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnam have attracted 17 billion USD ininvestments and created over 300,000 jobs. The VSIP is an enduring icon of ourbilateral partnership which is built on the close friendship and consultationsbetween the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and former Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet,who had asked Mr Lee to advise Vietnam on its economic opening in the late 1980sand early 1990s.
Even aswe strengthen cooperation in traditional areas such as trade and investment,there remain many opportunities to work together in new growth areas like thedigital economy, renewable energy, carbon credits, green financing,cybersecurity, and sustainable infrastructure. I would encourage interestedparties to explore collaboration in these areas, to establish mutuallybeneficial partnerships that advance the interests of both countries.
Reporter: Whatis the significance of the upcoming visit to Singapore by Vietnamese PrimeMinister Pham Minh Chinh? What do you vision about the prospect ofVietnam-Singapore cooperation in the coming decade?
PM Pham Minh Chinh (L) and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong meet on the sidelines of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related meetings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in November 2022. (Photo: VNA)
FM Vivian Balakrishnan: Wewarmly welcome Prime Minister Chinh, who is making his first Official Visit toSingapore. Prime Minister Chinh’s visit has an added significance as wecelebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomaticrelations between Singapore and Vietnam and the 10th anniversary ofthe Vietnam-Singapore Strategic Partnership this year. Prime Minister Lee HsienLoong has also accepted Prime Minister Chinh’s invitation to visit Vietnam. Weare confident that Prime Minister Chinh will have a fruitful and productivevisit to Singapore.
Lookingahead, I would like to highlight two areas in which there is much scope forcloser collaboration between Singapore and Vietnam. First, we need toaccelerate our cooperation in the digital economy. This is a priority for bothSingapore and Vietnam, and encompasses many new areas such as cybersecurity, cross-borderdata flows, smart cities, innovation, artificial intelligence, and digitalpayments. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the crucial role of digitaltrade and e-commerce in ensuring supply chain resilience and businesscontinuity. During the series of high-level exchanges last year, leaders onboth sides also agreed on the importance of accelerating cooperation in digitaltransformation. Second, sustainable development. Like COVID-19, climatechange is a global issue that can only be tackled through the collective effortof governments and people worldwide. Singapore is keen to work with Vietnam inrenewable energy, carbon credits, and sustainable infrastructure with theambitious goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Reporter: Intheir bilateral meeting on the occasion of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summits inCambodia in November 2022, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh andSingaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong agreed to direct the ministries andrelevant agencies of the two countries to study a possible framework of adigital economy - green economy partnership between the two countries. How doyou assess the prospects for bilateral cooperation in these fields?
FM Vivian Balakrishnan: As mentioned earlier, there is great potential forboth our countries to work together in these two fields. I recall that duringmy last visit to Vietnam in June 2021, both sides had agreed to establish aDigital Economy Working Group to identify useful areas of cooperation. We havesince put in place the foundations for working together. First, in February2022 the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information concluded an MOUon Digital Economy. This was followed up in October 2022, an MOU onCybersecurity, Cybercrime, Data Flows and Personal Data Protection Cooperationwas signed between the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information andthe Vietnam Ministry of Public Security. I am certain that these collaborationswill produce concrete outcomes, given our common interest in harnessing thepotential of the digital economy to improve our people’s lives.
The 12 Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIPs) across Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnam have attracted 17 billion USD in investments and created over 300,000 jobs. (Photo: VNA)
I understand that Prime Minister Chinh himselfplays an active role as Chair of the National Steering Committees for bothDigitalisation and Climate Change, and that the target is for Vietnam’s digitaleconomy to contribute to 20% of GDP by 2025. Vietnam is keen to build up ane-government, e-society, and digital population. Similarly, Singapore’s SmartNation strategy aims to build a digital economy, digital government and digitalsociety, with every industry, business and government agency drivingwhole-of-nation digitalisation. As for the green economy, both Singapore andVietnam have set the same target of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Bothcountries are also keen to work together to harness renewable energy for a moresustainable future. Vietnam enjoys an abundance of wind and sunlight, which itcould harness to generate renewable energy for both domestic consumption andexport to other countries. Within the region, there is already the LaoPDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS PIP), and thereis much scope for countries in the region to work together to realise an ASEANpower grid. There are many areas of complementarity between Singapore andVietnam in the fields of digital economy and green economy, and much more thatour countries can do together.
We lookforward to welcoming Prime Minister Chinh to Singapore. This will be a keyplatform for both countries to reaffirm our excellent ties, take stock of ourcooperation and discuss ways to advance our Strategic Partnership as we worktogether to create a more resilient and green future aswell as a peaceful and prosperous Southeast Asia./.
