Opportunity to Promote Cooperation between Vietnamese and Singapore Businesses

 

Bilateral trade between Singapore and Vietnam has grown steadily over the last 10 years. For 2012, total bilateral trade amounted to US$12.7 billion, which is 5.6 percent increase over 2011, making Vietnam Singapore’s 18th largest trading partner. On the other hand, Singapore is the 4th largest foreign investor in Vietnam, after Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, with registered cumulative investments of US$23.3 billion in 1,063 projects.

 

In recent years, Singapore investors in Vietnam have diversified into more sectors and geographical regions.  They have invested in both the services, such as hospitality management, port operations, logistics and healthcare; and manufacturing, such as food, consumer products and electronics components sectors. Real estate players are exploring township and housing developments, apart from serviced apartments, office buildings, hotels, and large infrastructure projects like the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park. Major Singapore companies in Vietnam include Keppel Land, UOL Group, Ascott Group, CapitaLand, SembCorp Industrial Development Ltd, Mapletree Investments, Banyan Tree, Ascendas, NOL Group, Changi Airports International and Thomson Medical Centre. 

 

Besides the existing Framework Cooperation on Vietnam–Singapore Connectivity signed in 2005, the two countries are working towards signing a Strategic Partnership agreement in 2013, a move that would enable us to go beyond traditional economic and business ties to cooperate in education, security, defence and other issues. We would also be looking at how we can work together more in areas such as battling terrorism and cross-border crime, while also expanding business opportunities for companies in both countries.

In the recent SBF National Business Survey, Asia remains the most popular region for overseas ventures, with 43 percent of the survey respondents having a business presence in Vietnam in 2012. This year, Vietnam is the 2nd country, after Myanmar, which SBF members are keen to venture into. These high rankings of Vietnam are a testament of the continuing Singapore business interest and engagement in the Vietnam market.

 

Vietnam possesses the ideal location to penetrate the Indochina market region, with immediate access to the larger markets in southern and southwestern China.  With its politically stable and safe environment, and an increasingly affluent population of 90 million people, there is much growth potential for the Vietnam market and economy.

Singapore has enjoyed excellent trade and investment relations with Vietnam over the past 40 years.  The “Singapore” brand reputation remains positive and highly respected among the Vietnamese business community.  

 

Despite the global economic slowdown in recent years, Vietnam’s annual GDP growth rate continues to surpass 5 percent. The Singapore business community remains confident of Vietnam’s future growth prospects as indicated in the latest SBF Business Survey of 2012 where Vietnam was ranked 2^nd most popular market after Myanmar. 

Singapore companies new to Vietnam continue to invest there. More importantly, Singapore businesses that have already invested in Vietnam have not divested. Instead, they have continued to maintain and even expand their business activities in Vietnam. These are clear indications that Vietnam is still an attractive investment destination for Singapore investors.

As a bilateral business forum jointly organised by VCCI and SBF, SBF hopes this forum platform will open up mutually beneficial opportunities for both Vietnam and Singapore businesses, which can be easily measured by the increasing number of new business contacts made and by the number of new business deals being facilitated at this bilateral business forum.

 

Besides the assistance provided to Singapore companies to successfully engage the Vietnam market, SBF also hopes to assist companies from Vietnam explore business opportunities overseas through Singapore.  The latter can be achieved by a range of programmes that SBF has developed to assist Vietnamese companies establish a business presence in Singapore and from Singapore, engage the wider ASEAN market or eventually the global market.  Singapore as a regional business hub of Southeast Asia with a global market connectivity offers many solutions for Vietnamese enterprises desiring to expand their export of products to the regional and global markets.

 

SBF does not work in a vacuum when helping Singapore companies engage the Vietnam market. SBF works closely with Singapore government agencies especially the International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) in organising market insight seminars in Singapore and business delegations to Vietnam. Over the past 3 years, SBF has been working closely with IE Singapore in organising the annual International Business Fellowship Executive Programme for Vietnam. This is a week-long intensive market immersion programme which aims to confer Singapore participants with the vital business know-how and practical insights on the dynamics of doing business in Vietnam.   The programme covers a diverse range of critical topics that include Vietnam’s Economic overview, Banking and taxation guidelines, Business legal entities framework, Political structure, Culture in business administration, and Human resource matters. The latest run was just completed in March 2013, where 11 C-level executives participated in a 1-week programme in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. To-date, the IBF programme has completed 11 successful intakes and trained over 100 senior level business executives and government officials from Singapore. We also welcome similar market immersion programme for Vietnamese companies to Singapore.

 

In October 2013, SBF will be collaborating with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in organising a Vietnam Business Forum in Singapore.