Cao Thị Phi Vân, deputy director of HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre, speaks at a meeting to seek foreign investment, especially from Singapore. Photo courtesy of the centre

HCM CITY — HCM City will continue improving its business climate to attract foreign investors, especially from Singapore, a trade official said.

Speaking at a meeting on Thursday (March 9), Cao Thị Phi Vân, deputy director of HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC), said with a strategic location and a population of more than 10 million, HCM City has great potential to attract foreign investors.

It is giving priority to quality projects with added value and high competitiveness, ensuring environmental protection and sustainable development, she said.

Located in the Southern Key Economic Zone, which includes HCM City and seven surrounding provinces, the city is home to 17 industrial parks, she added.

By investing in the city, foreign investors also have access the ASEAN community of 500 million consumers, she said.

The city also has highly skilled workers with more than 4.6 million employees, and has the potential to become a manufacturing hub of the country, she added.

Singapore is currently the second biggest investor out of 140 countries and territories investing in Việt Nam, with total registered capital of US$71.85 billion, according to Vân.

The city-state is also the largest investor among 117 countries and territories investing in HCM City with 1,677 projects totaling more than $14 billion in investment, she said.

Kho Choon Keng, chairman of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), said there was great potential for further collaboration and partnership between Singapore businesses and their Vietnamese counterparts.

“Việt Nam has fast emerged as a popular market of keen interest to Singapore companies,” he said.

“Many Singapore companies have established presence or are actively identifying opportunities across a wide range of sectors in Việt Nam, including infrastructure development, manufacturing, transport, logistics, education, tourism, financial and agriculture,” he said. 

They have even ventured beyond the main cities of Hà Nội and HCM City into other regions of the country, he added.

Singaporean businesses also seek investment opportunities in new areas, including sustainability, the green economy and the digital economy, according to Keng.

“Our bilateral trade has grown steadily over the past decade, reaching S$31 billion ($22.9 billion) in 2022,” he said. 

As of May last year, Singapore was the second-largest cumulative investor in Việt Nam, with investments totalling S$94.5 billion ($69.8 billion), according to Keng.

Established in 1906, SCCCI is a large organisation in Singapore with about 5,000 corporate members and more than 160 trade association members, representing over 40,000 companies, according to Keng.

HCM City attracted $332.3 million worth of foreign investment in the first two months of the year, up 43.1 per cent year-on-year, according to its Statistics Office.

It included $97.7 million from 101 new projects, up 22.8 per cent, and $47.6 million in 29 existing ones. 

Singapore topped the list of investors with $76.6 million.

As of February 20, the city had 11,447 foreign-invested projects worth nearly $56.33 billion, according to the office. 

The event was attended by nearly 70 enterprises in HCM City and 28 Singaporean enterprises in many fields. — VNS