HÀ NỘI — The thirteenth Việt Nam - Singapore Connectivity Ministerial Meeting, held yesterday in Hà Nội, promoted economic links between the two countries and enabled a review of bilateral investment.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng told the meeting that Singapore was a leading partner of Việt Nam in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia.

He said Singaporean businesses had amply contributed to education, information, transport, banking and tourism, adding that Việt Nam had been increasingly active in improving the national investment and business environment and boosting confidence for the Singapore business community.

Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry, Lim Hong Kiang, said Việt Nam was an important partner to Singapore as the two nations had many mutually complimentary characteristics.

Dũng hoped that the two sides would expand co-operation to raise bilateral trade and investment, exchange information - and handle any problems for Singapore enterprises.

Ministerial representatives from both countries assessed the implementation of trade agreements in six areas of investment - finance, information and communication technology, education and training, transport and trade, and services.

They said trade and investment co-operation had been positive. Bilateral trade had grown by an average of 12 per cent  per year.

Since 2013, they said the relationship had been upgraded to strategic partner level, with Singapore as Việt Nam’s second largest trading partner in ASEAN after Thailand.

Việt Nam is also the sixth largest trading partner for the island state after China, Japan, the United States, the European Union and South Korea. Last year, Việt Nam became Singapore’s eleventh largest trading partner.

In the first seven months of this year, bilateral trade turnover reached US$5 billion, up by 16.4 per cent over the same period last year.

Vietnamese exports to Singapore reached $1.7 billion, up 28.9 per cent from 2016. Imports from Singapore reached $3.3 billion, up by 10.6 per cent over last year.

In terms of investment, Singapore has 1,918 effective investment projects with a total registered capital of more than $41.38 billion, ranking third among the top 12 countries and territories investing in Việt Nam, after South Korea and Japan.

Singapore’s investment in Việt Nam is mainly in the form of 100 per cent foreign capital and joint venture, with an average amount of registered investment capital of about $21.6 million per project.This is $12.9 million higher than the average amount for any other foreign investment project in Việt Nam .

In the first eight months of 2017, Singapore had $3.93 billion of registered capital in Việt Nam of which $2.84 billion was newly registered capital, $718 million of additional registered capital and $370 million in share capital.

Việt Nam has 93 investment projects in Singapore with a total capital of $235 million. This makes it twelfth out of  72 foreign countries and territories with Vietnamese investment projects. These projects chiefly focus on oil and gas, mining, retail, services, information technology, and logistics.

Nonetheless, the co-operation between Việt Nam and Singapore in the remaining areas, while fast developing, has not been corresponding with the potential and needs of mutual co-operation with much room for growth, said Lim.

The meeting was jointly organised by the MPI and Singapore’s Ministry for Trade and Industry, with a follow-up session focusing on channelling Singapore investment into Quảng Trị Province. — VNS