Singapore consolidates its top tier as Vietnam’s pivotal investor

The 13th Vietnam - Singapore Connectivity Ministerial Meeting was held in Hanoi on October 17, 2017. The leaders of the two countries reviewed and evaluated the cooperation agreements in six areas in which Vietnam and Singapore cooperated, emphasizing bilateral cooperation on investment and trade.

“This year’s meeting will give the two countries opportunity to study and propose specific measures to mobilize the resources and utilize the potential of the two countries and bring Vietnam and Singapore’s connectivity framework into a deeper level of development,” said Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung.

On investment, according to John Conceicao, Executive Director of International Relations & Marketing Planning & Oceania, Singapore remains an important economic partner in Vietnam.

Vietnam has invested in 93 projects worth US$235 million in Singapore which ranks the 12th out of 72 countries having Vietnamese investment. Most of the projects mainly focus on such fields as oil and gas, mining, retail, service, information technology and logistics.

Meanwhile, Singapore is the 3rd largest foreign investor in Vietnam, following South Korea and Japan with 1,918 projects worth over US$41.38 billion. The average investment of Singapore in Vietnam is about US$21.6 million per project, compared to the average of US$12.9 million per project of other foreign investors in Vietnam.

Singapore has invested in 18 fields in Vietnam with the investment capital in the manufacturing and processing industry accounting for up to 44 per cent. Within first eight months of 2017, Singapore had US$3.93 billion of registered capital in Vietnam. Singapore’s investments in Vietnam mostly implemented by 100 per cent foreign-owned companies which account for 75 per cent and trans-national companies.