Nearly 8 years after Singapore gained independence, Vietnam and Singapore officially established bilateral diplomatic relations on August 1, 1973. In over 40 years, both sides’ bilateral relations have grown from strength to strength.
The already excellent and multi-faceted bilateral ties between Vietnam and Singapore have been built up over the last 42 years through many exchanges of visits at the highest level. In March 1998, President Tran Duc Luong’s visit to Singapore opened a stage of regular exchanges of high level visits between both countries. In September 2011, President Truong Tan Sang paid a State level visit to Singapore, which was followed by Singapore President Tony Tan’s State visit to Vietnam in April 2012. In the same year, Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong paid an official visit to Singapore. In 2013, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong paid a visit to Vietnam. Besides above high level visits, the countries frequently conduct exchanges at Ministerial and Senior levels.
The year 2013 opened a new chapter of Vietnam-Singapore relations – 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties - when both countries elevated bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership on the visit of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Vietnam. The Strategic Partnership Agreement has helped to reinforce the existing links between Singapore and Vietnam, opening up new directions for cooperation in various areas, including cooperation in education, training and finance.
In over four decades, one of the significant factors in forging strong bilateral ties between Vietnam and Singapore is the expansion of trade and business contacts. Another factor that further underpins Vietnam and Singapore economic relations is the Connectivity Framework Agreement which was implemented in early 2006. The agreement is considered a platform for bilateral economic co-operation to build strengths and competencies for Vietnam and Singapore to accelerate Vietnam’s economic growth and to promote Singapore’s active participation in this process at the same time. The Connectivity Framework affirmed bilateral economic cooperation between both sides across six sectors of education and training, finance, investments, information technology and telecommunications, trade and services, and transportation.
After nearly 10 years of implementation, the Connectivity Framework Agreement has gained fruitful results, it provides positive support to facilitate many significant investment projects of Singaporean enterprises into Vietnam. As of February 2015, Singapore ranked as the third largest foreign investor in Vietnam with registered cumulative investments of US$33 billion in 1,379 projects. One of the typical projects is the five Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIPs) in Binh Duong, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh and Quang Ngai. VSIP is regarded as a concrete symbol of the strong and close co-operation between both countries.
In recent years, Singapore has been one of Vietnam’s most important trading partners. Bilateral trade between the countries reached US$16.3 billion in 2014, up 20.3 percent compared to 2013. Trade between Vietnam and Singapore has tripled from 2003 levels, reaching US$13.9 billion in 2013. Till October 2014, trade levels were over the total for 2013.
Regarding human resource development, Singapore is one of the important contributors for Vietnam. From 1992 up to now, nearly 14,000 Vietnamese received training in Singapore under the Singapore Cooperation Programme in areas such as healthcare, environment, finance and trade, productivity, public administration and English language training. In addition, the Vietnam-Singapore Training Centre in Hanoi, established since February 2002, also focuses on capacity building for Vietnamese officials and holds courses in relevant fields of study. Singapore has also been providing scholarships to Vietnamese students to pursue academic courses such as the ASEAN Scholarships, the Singapore Scholarship (undergraduate studies) and the NUS Master in Public Management and Master in Public Policy Programmes (post-graduate studies).
In addition, under the Singapore Co-operation Programme (SCP) which was established in 1992 to serve as the primary platform through which Singapore offers technical assistance to other countries, Vietnam is one of the top recipient countries.
In short, in the context of efforts to establish ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) as expected by the end of 2015, the Vietnam-Singapore relationship will surely grow stronger. As an international hub, Singapore will attract more multi-national companies to establish their regional headquarters in Singapore and then to direct their investments into emerging markets like Vietnam. Overall, the bright future for a stronger relationship is ahead for Vietnam and Singapore.
Le Phuong
Vietnamese
