Vietnam, Singapore establish green economy partnership

During their talks on Thursday, the two leaders agreed to consider upgrading the cooperation mechanism by establishing the Vietnam–Singapore Digital Economy and Green Economy Partnership as stated in a memorandum of understanding signed Thursday.

The memorandum said that Vietnam and Singapore will promote the sharing of management experience, ideas and platforms in digital transformation with focus on the three pillars of digital government, digital economy and digital society.

Singapore will support Vietnam in building a digital platform and promoting digital transformation in priority areas such as population management, finance and banking, land and e-commerce.

In terms of green economy, Singapore will support Vietnam in a fair energy transition, eyeing towards zero emissions by 2050.

The promotion of electricity grid connection between Vietnam and Singapore is expected to be a model for cooperation on trade and electricity connectivity in ASEAN.

PM Chinh, who is in Singapore for an official visit to the country and Brunei from February 8-11, said Vietnam has been creating favorable conditions for Singaporean businesses to expand their investment, especially in the fields of digital transformation, green energy, science and technology.

He suggested that Singapore increase imports of agricultural products, seafood, textiles and garments and facilitate the introduction of Vietnamese goods into the country's supply chain.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong thanked Vietnam for approving in policy the investment in the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) Nghe An 2.

He said he supported the proposals to open more VSIPs in localities, and boost clean energy cooperation, transmission connection and electricity trade between the two countries.

The two Prime Ministers witnessed the signing of a number of memorandums of understanding after the talk.

Also Thursday PM Chinh met with Singapore President Haliman Yacob.

Chinh affirmed that Vietnam encourages Singaporean businesses to expand their investment in VSIPs in the direction of green, smart and energy-saving.

Chinh asked Singapore to study and open more VSIPs in non-central localities to support Vietnam in developing evenly across regions.

He also proposed that the two countries soon sign sign a labor cooperation agreement.

Singapore leads ASEAN and ranks second in the world in terms of investment in Vietnam with 3,095 projects, worth a total of $70.8 billion, accounting for 22.9% of total registered foreign direct investment capital.

In 2021, trade turnover between Vietnam and Singapore reached $8.3 billion and increased to about $9 billion in 2022.