Twentyyears ago, when the southern province of Binh Duong was known as SongBe, Lee Kuan Yew arrived in the province to examine the VSIPconstruction site in what is now Thuan An commune, Vice Chairman of theprovincial People’s Committee Tran Thanh Liem reminisced.
Upon his arrival in Binh Duong, Mr. Lee encouraged local authoritiesto develop industry and foster their belief that the province would growmore strongly in the future, Liem said.
The province was honoured to welcome the former PM another four times since the VSIP was commissioned.
Lee Kuan Yew was considered a key figure in the establishment anddevelopment of cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore, Liemsaid.
In 2007, in his capacity as Singapore’sMinister Mentor, visited the VSIP for the second time to study thehuman resources, industrial development, administrative reform, andeducation-training work in Binh Duong.
He wrote in the visitors’ book that he could see considerable progress had been made in the previous decade.
Lee Kuan Yew also visited the VSIP II in the Binh Duongindustry-service-urban complex on the occasion of his visit to Vietnamin April 2009, at the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.Once again, he made it clear how impressed he was at the rapid progressthat had been made.
The VSIP was shaped on thebasis of friendship and economic cooperation between Vietnam andSingapore. With the support of the two governments, the Binh DuongBecamex Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and Singapore SembcorpDevelopment led infrastructure and real estate businesses to carry outthe project from 1996.
The VSIP is developing fivelinked projects across Vietnam , with a total land area of over 6,000hectares spread across the provinces of Binh Duong, Bac Ninh and QuangNgai and Hai Phong port city.
It is attractinginvestment projects worth 7.4 billion USD from 30 nations andterritories and generating jobs for 140,000 local workers.
Lee Kuan Yew served as Singapore’s Prime Minister from 1959 to1990. He passed away in the early hours of March 23 at the age of 91. Heis widely credited with turning Singapore into one of the mostaffluent economies in Asia within three decades.-VNA