The construction of a Vietnam-Singapore industrial park (VSIP) started in the northern port city of Hai Phong on January 13 in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong.

Addressing the breaking-ground ceremony, the Vietnamese PM expressed his belief in the success of the 1-billion-USD project. He lauded contributions made by Singaporean investors to Vietnam’s economic development over the past years and affirmed that Vietnam will create favourable conditions for investors from the state island.

The Hai Phong-based VISP is expected to create thousands of jobs for the locals and will be a driving force for the socio-economic development of the city in particular and the whole Red River Delta in general, the PM said.

Dung asked the project’s owner to apply advanced technologies, protect the environment and ensure lives of those people who have to move to new places for settlement.

Previously, three IPs of the same kind were built in the southern province of Binh Duong and the northern province of Bac Ninh.

The IPs are good symbols of the bilaterally successful cooperation, Singaporean PM Lee said, adding that those projects have combined Vietnam’s potentials with foreign experiences and financial resources.

The new IP covers an acreage of nearly 1,600 hectares, in which 500 hectares are slated for industrial factories and the rest of almost 1,100 hectares for the development of urban area.

At present, Singapore is one of the Vietnam’s leading partners with the two-way trade turnover hitting 12 billion USD in 2008. The country now boasts 780 investment projects in Vietnam with a combined registered capital of over 17 billion USD./.