Vietnam will see more investment from Singapore in the coming time as the two countries inked August 13 many contracts worth up to nearly US$1.2 billion during the visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, local media reported on August 14.
Sembcorp group pledged to invest to build an urban, industrial and service center in northern Bac Ninh province and constructing a new urban zone in the northern Haiphong port city.
Akitek Tenggara signed a memorandum of understanding with central Thua Thien Hue province for a tourism project, while SP Chemical inked another contract with central Phu Yen province to build an 800,000-ton-oil refinery plant.
These contracts have total value of nearly US$185.5 million and were inked under the witness of the two Prime Ministers Nguyen Tan Dung and Lee Hsien Loong.
At a business forum held in the Singaporean Conference Center on the same day Vietnamese firms also signed contracts worth nearly US$1 billion in total. They included a credit contract valued at US$700 million between Vietnam National Shipping Lines and Credit Suisess Bank and a US$100-million contract between Saigontourist and Golden Travel.
The forum took place after the talks between Dung and Lee and attracted more than 200 Singaporean and international businesses.
Speaking at the forum, Dung affirmed that Vietnam always considers foreign investors an indispensable part of the country’s economy. The success of foreign businesses in Vietnam will also be Vietnam’s achievement.
The Vietnamese leader also met with representatives of some Singaporean giants in the fields of oil and gas, electricity, real estate, and tourism services such as Keppel, AES, Singapore Post, Singapore Pools, NTUC Fairprice Coopertive, and Hotel Property. Ltd.
During the visit to Singapore Nguyen Tan Dung also reached agreements with his counterpart Lee Hsien Loong to fully implement the Joint Statement on Vietnam-Singapore Comprehensive Cooperation Framework in the 21st Century already signed in March 2004 and the Framework Agreement on linking the two economies signed in December 2005.
They affirmed to carry out these agreements in the six fields of finance, investment, trade and service, transport, post and telecommunications, information & technology, and education & training, and agreed to consider the possibility of expanding cooperation to another fields such as garment, footwear, and foodstuff processing.
The two PMs hoped to see more investment cooperative models similar to the current Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in southern Binh Duong province, and agreed to create more favorable conditions for trade and investment cooperation activities of enterprises of both sides.
Lee Hsien Loong pledged to help Vietnam in human resources training through granting scholarships for Vietnamese students to study in Singapore and enhance cooperation between the two countries’ universities.
The two leaders also agreed to continue with close coordination in the framework of ASEAN cooperation in order to fulfill the target of building an ASEAN common community by 2015 as well as the ASEAN Charter.
Prime Minister Dung affirmed that Vietnam will actively contribute to the success of the 13th ASEAN Summit and related meetings to be held in Singapore in November this year.
Dung and Lee also vowed to boost cooperation and coordination between Vietnam and Singapore at the other international forums of ASEM, APEC, and the UN in the coming time.
Prime Minister Dung also met with Singaporean President S.R. Nathan, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who suggested the two countries boost cooperation in finance, investment, trade-service, transport, telecommunication-information technology, and education-training.
Today the Vietnamese leader will visit Myanmar before going to Brunei. He already toured Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
To date, Singapore has invested US$9.6 billion into more than 500 projects in Vietnam, ranking first among 79 countries and territories investing in the country. Two-way trade between Vietnam and Singapore topped US$7.7 billion in 2006 and US$4.5 billion in the first half of this year. (The People, Youth, Website of Government, Party)
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