Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming State visit to Singapore by President NguyenXuan Phuc is hoped to lift the bilateral relationship to a new height in the contextof several new-generation free trade agreements to which both are memberstaking effective.

The visit, slated for February 24-26 under an invitation ofPresident Halimah Yacob, is the first foreign trip of President Phuc in 2022, and thefirst by a head of state to Singapore since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It aims at affirming Vietnam's determination to boost economic development and create a favourable business environment, thus delivering an important message helpingSingaporean investors feel secure to do business in Vietnam.

The visit is expected to be an important contribution to Vietnam'sefforts to promote post-pandemic economic recovery, especially in the fieldsthat Singapore has strengths and Vietnam has demand such as digital economy andtransformation, and high-quality human resources.

In recent years, the Vietnam-Singapore strategic partnershiphas developed strongly. Amidst complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic,the two sides have maintained contacts and meetings at different levels, and made good use of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, especially the annual political consultationat the deputy foreign ministerial level.

Two-way trade hit 8.3 billion USD in 2021, and over 783 million USD in January 2022, up 23.3 percent and 6.8 percent year-on-year,respectively.

As of February this year, Singapore has 2,860 valid projects worth 66billion USD, ranking second among 140 nations and territories pouring capitalinto Vietnam. Notably, last year, Singapore took the lead among all foreign investors with registeredinvestment of over 10.7 billion USD, accounting for 34.4 percent of totalcapital attracted by Vietnam.

Singaporean investors have participated in buildinginfrastructure for 13 industrial parks in Vietnam, with a total area of about7,517 hectares. Those industrial parks are operating with high occupancy rates(83.2 percent on average), attracting nearly 1,000 projects, in which more than80 percent are foreign-invested projects with a total registered capital ofabout 18.1 billion USD and nearly 300,000 jobs have been created.

In the fight against COVID-19, Singapore were among thefirst ASEAN countries to provide medical equipment and supplies for Vietnam.Singapore presented medical equipment worth nearly 5 million USD to Vietnam in September2021, and has recently announced a gift of 122,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccinefor the latter. Meanwhile, when the pandemic developed complicatedly inSingapore, the Vietnamese National Assembly granted 30,000 face masks to itscounterpart.

There are around 13,000 Vietnamese nationals living in Singapore, including 7,000 students and 2,500 workers.

President Phuc’s State visit takes place in the context thatthe bilateral ties are developing significantly in all fields and it has great significance at a time when the two arepreparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties in2023./.