At the meeting (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The 13th Vietnam-Singapore Connectivity MinisterialMeeting opened in Hanoi on October 17, aiming to strengthen economicconnectivity and trade cooperation between the two countries.
Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dungsaid Singapore is a significant trade partner of Vietnam in Asia and SoutheastAsia. The meeting offers a chance to review bilateral investment on severalfields such as education, information, transportation, finance-banking andtourism 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 comingtime, raising the efficiency of bilateral investment. The two sides will alsoexchange information and address difficulties of Singapore’s firms in Vietnam.
For his part, Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiangaffirmed that Vietnam is a major economic partner that has attracted the increasingnumber of foreign investment, including those from Singapore.
At the meeting, the two sides evaluated the implementation of bilateral cooperationagreements 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 proposedboth countries’ State management agencies bolster cooperation, informationexchange and experience sharing on management policies and knowledge in variousfields such as communications, education-training, tourism-services, urbantransportation planning and management, road transport development andexport-import.
Vietnam-Singapore trade has been thriving with an average growth of 12percent a year. Singapore is the sixth biggest trade partner of Vietnam whileVietnam is currently the 11th largest trade partner of Singapore.
In the first seven months of 2017, two-way trade between Vietnam and Singaporehit 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 thirdleading foreign investor in Vietnam.
In the January-August period, Singapore poured 3.93 billion USD of registered capitalinto Vietnam. Of the sum, 2.84 billion USD came to newly-approved projects,while 718 million USD was added to existing projects.-VNA
