Viet Nam and Singapore have elevated the bilateral ties to strategic partnership during PM Lee Hsien Loong’s official visit to Viet Nam last September, making Singapore the 3^rd ASEAN country to set up strategic partnership with Viet Nam.

The strategic partnership, which includes a broad range of areas such as finance, trade and investment, transportation, defence, and education, will consolidate and build on existing cooperation, paving the way to a stronger and deeper relationship in a win-win and fruitful manner, said Singaporean Ambassador to Viet Nam Ng. Teck Hean.

Both countries have enjoyed the success of the Viet Nam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIPs) model, with the latest one ground-broken in Quang Ngai province on September 13 this year. They have agreed to expand the model to other provinces and cities in the future.

VSIPs has attracted 490 investors from 22 countries and territories with total investment of more than US$6 billion, creating jobs for 140,000 people.

Minister Grace Fu said that Singapore stands ready to share experience of investment management, planning and attraction, as well as negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with Viet Nam.

She believed abundant natural resources and a skilled and hard-working labor force would be advantages for Viet Nam to diversify trade ties with regional partners and expand export markets.

The same day, Deputy PM Ninh also met with executives of Temasek Holdings and the Monetary Authority of Singapore to exchange experience of policy making in the areas of monetary, banking and efficient management of State assets in SOEs.