Promoting Vietnam-Singapore cooperation to new heights

Yesterday evening (April 28), Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his wife, along with the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation, returned to Hanoi after an official visit to Singapore and attending the 32nd ASEAN Summit, successfully concluding the trip.

The official visit took place in a very special context, as the two countries were celebrating the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 5th anniversary of the Strategic Partnership. At the talks after the welcoming ceremony, looking back at that process, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong both expressed satisfaction with the strong developments in the Vietnam-Singapore relationship.

In the spirit of bringing bilateral cooperation to a new level, the two leaders agreed to seize the opportunities for regional economic integration brought about by the CPTPP and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In particular, economics will remain a focus of bilateral cooperation in the coming time. Singapore pledged to continue increasing investment in Vietnam in the fields of clean energy, building high-tech parks and smart cities, building seaports and developing logistics services; and investing in Vietnamese technology startups.

The two Prime Ministers also agreed to promote cooperation in connectivity, finance and science and technology by increasing the number of flights between the two countries.

Accompanying the Prime Minister throughout the trip, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Quoc Dung added that, in addition to traditional areas of cooperation between the two sides such as electronics, textiles, and processing, the two sides are determined to expand to areas requiring more science and technology content, bringing higher added value. These include new energy, renewable energy, areas requiring high technology such as building smart cities, urban solutions, digital economy, e-commerce; and areas bringing high efficiency such as seaport and aviation connectivity.

Singapore is now considered not only a regional shipping hub but also a world leader in maritime transport and logistics capacity. In the context of the country's great need to develop these areas, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc spent a lot of time visiting and listening to the Singapore Port Management Company PSA and YCH Group share their experiences in port management and logistics services. These are leading Singaporean corporations, applying the most modern technologies in the world in their operations and bringing high efficiency. The Prime Minister asked the corporations to share their experiences, cooperate and invest in Vietnam.

According to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Quoc Dung, this is a very specific activity of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc right after a series of instructions on developing logistics services in Vietnam at the national conference on logistics.

“Logistics is Vietnam’s strong point. Vietnam’s logistics costs account for 25% of GDP, while Singapore’s logistics costs account for only 8% of GDP. Singapore is one of the leading countries in applying technology to the logistics sector. And so, learning, applying and cooperating with Singapore will help Vietnam develop the logistics sector, thereby helping to improve the competitiveness of the economy and attract more investment,” Deputy Minister Le Quoc Dung added.

During this trip, the Prime Minister also spent a lot of time promoting trade and investment, such as attending the Vietnam-Singapore Business Forum; having two dialogues and many meetings with leading Singaporean enterprises. Many issues raised by investors were directly answered by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the ministries and branches were requested to answer. As a result, Singaporean enterprises expressed their confidence in choosing Vietnam as a long-term investment destination.

At the Vietnam-Singapore Business Forum, the Prime Minister witnessed the signing of 16 cooperation agreements between businesses and localities of the two countries.

In fact, Singaporean investors are quite knowledgeable about the Vietnamese market. Therefore, the Prime Minister emphasized that Vietnam is welcoming Singaporean investors in a new phase. And that is understood as the phase of the 4.0 industrial revolution; the phase in which Vietnam and Singapore have just signed the CPTPP; and the phase in which Vietnam has many conditions to connect more deeply and cooperate more strongly with Singapore.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized: “Vietnam is making efforts to build a creative startup economy, economic dynamism, open internet policy and the level of complexity and level of production and business are being raised, creating many great opportunities for startups to invest and do business in Vietnam. Accordingly, we encourage investment funds to focus on supporting creative and potential startups. The Vietnamese Government is committed to supporting and creating the best conditions for startup ideas, protecting intellectual property rights within the framework of the Intellectual Property Law passed by the Vietnamese National Assembly, as well as implementing commitments to protect intellectual property rights within the framework of FTAs ​​that Vietnam is participating in”.

During the trip, the Prime Minister and leaders of many Vietnamese ministries, sectors and enterprises visited Singapore Management University (SMU) and the SMU Startup Incubator, one of the leading facilities supporting startups in Singapore. Here, the Prime Minister said that Vietnam identifies universities as playing an important role in the national innovation and startup ecosystem and was delighted to witness Singapore Management University signing two cooperation agreements with Vietnamese partners in the field of startups.

After concluding his official visit to Singapore, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc led a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to attend the 32nd ASEAN Summit with the theme “Building a Resilient and Innovative ASEAN”. This is the first Summit in Singapore’s 2018 ASEAN Chairmanship.

The leaders emphasized the importance of ASEAN's spirit of self-reliance and creativity, saying that this will be a solid foundation for the Association to continue moving forward in the context of the rapidly changing and complex regional and international situation along with new opportunities being opened with the 4.0 industrial revolution.

Leading the Vietnamese delegation to the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc shared his views with ASEAN leaders, affirming that ASEAN's collective resilience needs to be nurtured and promoted across all three pillars, in which maintaining solidarity, unity and ASEAN's central role are of key importance. The Prime Minister emphasized that if the 10 member countries focus on promoting their internal strength and together maintain solidarity and unity, ASEAN will have collective resilience.

In an emerging regional security architecture, a united and cohesive ASEAN community will play a central role in mutually beneficial cooperation with partners to build a rules-based regional order, sharing responsibility for addressing issues of concern for the common good.

The Prime Minister also said that effectively promoting creativity will be a lever to increase ASEAN's self-reliance, in which economic self-reliance is very important for economies with large openness like ASEAN. The ASEAN Community must be a strong home so that people are protected from threats from natural disasters, climate change, extreme weather, epidemics, etc.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister announced that Vietnam has nominated three leading cities, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, to participate in the ASEAN Smart Cities Network initiative.

On the sidelines of the Conference, the Prime Minister had bilateral meetings with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and Myanmar President Win Myint, discussing many measures to further promote bilateral relations.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s official visit to Singapore and attendance at the 32nd ASEAN Summit have promoted Vietnam-Singapore cooperation to a new height; at the same time, actively promoted solidarity, unity and maintained ASEAN’s central role./.