Hanoi (VNA) – The recent officialvisit to Singapore by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his spouse along witha high-ranking delegation from Vietnam was successful in various spheres,according to Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung.

In an interview granted to the press on theoutcome of the visit, Dung said that first of all, via the visit, the mutualtrust in the bilateral relations after 45 years of diplomatic ties and fiveyears of strategic partnership has been reinforced and strengthened. The trust,closeness and shared vision of development goals and strategic security issuesof the two countries create an important foundation for their vigorous cooperationdevelopment in all fields, making active contributions to the growth of eachnation. Vietnam and Singapore agreed to enhance collaboration insecurity-defence, especially cyber security, building the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nation (ASEAN) of solidarity, self-resilience and innovation aswell as maintaining the bloc’s central role in the regional architecture.

The two sides also shared the common viewpointof ASEAN on East Sea issue of maintaining peace, stability, security, andsafety of navigation and aviation and addressing disputes via peaceful meansand in respect of diplomatic and legal processes, without use of or threat to useof force, on the basic of international law, including the United NationsConvention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS).

They back the full implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Partiesin the East Sea (DOC) towards the early completion of an effective and legally bindingCode of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Secondly, the visit has created a new frameworkof connectivity when the economies of Vietnam and and Singapore are moving to anew period of development with more extensive and intensive integration intoregional and global economies proven by their signing of the Comprehensive andProgressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and activenegotiations on numerous regional cooperation deals such as the RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and Free Trade Agreements(FTAs).

Singapore’s commitments to prioritising strongercooperation in the fields of clean energy, urban solutions, agriculture, andencouragement of joint projects between the two countries’ businesses tooptimise Singapore’s strengths in advanced technology and trade of agriculturalproducts will be a powerful lever for Vietnamese enterprises to join the globalsupply chain, thus bringing long-term and sustainable benefits to people. Thetwo PMs also reached high consensus on promoting affiliation in education andtraining (especially English and vocational training), finance, oil and gasservices, and science-technology.

Thirdly, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucdelivered the strong reaffirmation of the Vietnamese government to adoptfavourable policies for the Vietnamese community abroad, particularlyencouraging overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and experts to contribute tobuilding national development policies, as well as measures to support overseasstudents to start their business when coming back to the homeland.

While holding talks with nearly 30 intellectualsin Singapore, including many professors and doctors of Vietnamese origin, PMPhuc took note of their opinions regarding the national development and buildingof a facilitating government in the new industrial era. During his meeting withVietnamese students at the Singapore Management University, he highlighted theGovernment’s commitment to creating a favourable start-up environment. He notedthat the nearly 10,000 Vietnamese students along with a remarkable number ofVietnamese intellectuals and experts in Singapore is really a valuable humanresource for Vietnam in the path of development and integration.

Last but not least, through the research andexperience sharing on the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) andlogistics, Vietnam and Singapore agreed on major cooperation orientations inbuilding master plans and programmes on Industry 4.0, focusing on itsopportunities and challenges for the Government and businesses.

Singapore pledged to support Vietnam in improvingcapacity to take advantage of new cutting-edge technology, develop physical andtechnical infrastructure such as applying digitalisation, artificialintelligence and automated machines, and sharpen soft skills includingmanagement capability along with improving quality of human resources throughtraining cooperation (for example, studying the possibility of opening aSingapore’s logistics training school in Vietnam).

According to Deputy FM Dung, one of thehighlights of the visit was creating a framework of close connectivity betweenthe Government and businesses and among enterprises of the two countries.

At a business forum with the participation of nearly 700 delegates, the twosides sealed over 20 cooperation agreements in specific fields such as liquefiedgas, gas, agriculture, aviation, urban planning and tourism-hotel complexconstruction worth approximately 3 billion USD in total, he said.-VNA