Vietnam, Singapore bolster economic connectivity, trade cooperation

At the meeting (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The 13th Vietnam-Singapore Connectivity Ministerial Meeting opened in Hanoi on October 17, aiming to strengthen economic connectivity and trade cooperation between the two countries.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said Singapore is a significant trade partner of Vietnam in Asia and Southeast Asia. The meeting offers a chance to review bilateral investment on several fields such as education, information, transportation, finance-banking and tourism services.

Recently, Vietnam has been more active in improving business and investment climate, and raising the confidence of international businesses, the minister added.

He voiced his hope that the two countries will expand cooperation in the coming time, raising the efficiency of bilateral investment. The two sides will also exchange information and address difficulties of Singapore’s firms in Vietnam.

For his part, Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang affirmed that Vietnam is a major economic partner that has attracted the increasing number of foreign investment, including those from Singapore.

At the meeting, the two sides evaluated the implementation of bilateral cooperation agreements in the six connectivity areas, namely investment, finance, information technology and communications, education and training, transportation, and trade and services.

To boost economic connectivity and investment cooperation, the two sides proposed both countries’ State management agencies bolster cooperation, information exchange and experience sharing on management policies and knowledge in various fields such as communications, education-training, tourism-services, urban transportation planning and management, road transport development and export-import.

Vietnam-Singapore trade has been thriving with an average growth of 12 percent a year. Singapore is the sixth biggest trade partner of Vietnam while Vietnam is currently the 11th largest trade partner of Singapore.

In the first seven months of 2017, two-way trade between Vietnam and Singapore hit five billion USD, up 16.4 percent year-on-year.

Singapore currently has more than 1,910 valid investment projects in Vietnam, with total registered capital of over 41.38 billion USD, making it the third leading foreign investor in Vietnam.

In the January-August period, Singapore poured 3.93 billion USD of registered capital into Vietnam. Of the sum, 2.84 billion USD came to newly-approved projects, while 718 million USD was added to existing projects.-VNA