Vietnam and Singapore’s top leaders have agreed to expand bilateral cooperation in areas such as urban planning, construction, healthcare services, transport, post and telecommunications.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and his Singaporean counterpart, Sellapan Rama Nathan, reached a consensus on these fields during their meeting after a red carpet welcome for President Triet at the Istana Presidential Office on Nov. 16.

President Triet, who is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem and several other senior officials, began the State visit to Singapore after attending the 17th meeting of APEC’s economic heads.

President Nathan welcomed President Triet’s trip to Singapore, saying that he believed the visit would raise the existing friendly and cooperative ties between the two nations to a new height.

He noted that Singaporean companies were pleased with the business and investment environment in Vietnam and were planning to expand their economic links with the country.

President Triet congratulated the government and people of Singapore on the huge achievements they have recorded in recent years, particularly their efforts to weather the impacts of the global economic and financial crisis, plus successfully hosting the 17th meeting of APEC’s economic leaders.

Both host and guest expressed their delight at the rapid developments in Vietnam and Singapore’s relationship in recent years, especially after President Sellapan Rama Nathan’s visit to Vietnam in February 2008.

They confirmed their determination to continue to strengthen and develop their ties into a comprehensive, durable and stable relationship for peace and prosperity in the region as well as the world at large.

In this spirit, both presidents discussed a wide range of ways of effectively implementing the Framework Agreement on Vietnamese-Singaporean links in finance, banking, education, training, investment, IT, trade, services and transportation.

They also agreed that Vietnam and Singapore need to step up cooperative ties in tourism, culture, security and national defence.

During their meeting, both leaders also touched upon a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern.

President Nathan confirmed that Singapore will support Vietnam ’s endeavours when the country assumes the ASEAN Chair in 2010, which will speed up the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community and enhance relations between ASEAN and its outside partners./.