Vietnam, especially Ho Chi Minh City remains an important investment destination for Singaporean businesses, said Leow Siu Lin, Singapore’s Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City.

Speaking at a ceremony honouring the 49th anniversary of the Singapore National Day (August 9) on August 6, Leow Siu Lin noted that Singapore’s investment and cooperative projects such as Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) have become a symbol of effective economic cooperation between the two countries. Singapore tops foreign investors in HCM City with 686 projects worth 6.56 billion USD.

Singapore is one the leading investors and trading partners of Vietnam. As of July, the country’s total investment in Vietnam reached 30 billion USD with 1,300 projects, making it the third largest investor of Vietnam following Japan and Taiwan .

The two-way trade between the two countries has quadrupled since 2000 to 17.4 billion USD in 2013.

According to Nguyen Thanh Rum, President of the Vietnam-Singapore Friendship Association in Ho Chi Minh City, despite gloomy global economic situation, with Vietnam’s open door policy and traditional cooperative relations, Singaporean investors have still conducted many projects in Vietnam effectively.

Singapore has engaged in almost all Vietnam’s economic sectors, such as oil and gas exploration and exploitation, agro-forestry-fishery sector, infrastructure, services and real estate, Rum noted, adding that Singapore-invested projects have remarkably contributed to generating jobs and boosting the country’s economic growth.-VNA