Hanoi (VNA) - Singapore and Vietnam could expect more excitingdevelopments in innovation, energy connectivity and sustainability this year,Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam has stated in his interview withthe Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the lunar new year.

Reporter: How do you evaluate theVietnam-Singapore relations in 2023 when the two countries celebrate the 50thanniversary of diplomatic relations and 10-year strategic partnership, andtheir cooperation prospects for the following years?

SingaporeanAmbassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam: At this timelast year, I expected that 2023 would be a momentous year for Vietnam andSingapore’s relationship. And what a year it has been, exceeding all myexpectations. We celebrated the 50-year anniversary of the establishment ofdiplomatic relations and the 10-year anniversary since the establishment of ourStrategic Partnership between the two countries. As we begin 2024, both countries are now activelylooking to elevating our relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership! 

Our bilateral cooperation has expandedrapidly in recent years to encompass more areas, ranging from defence andpublic security, economic and infrastructure development, to education andpeople development.  We have deepened ourrelationship in these areas and extended our reach to include the new areas ofgrowth such as the digital and green economies and climate change. 

We also moved beyond rhetoric with concretesteps to step up our bilateral coordination and cooperation. First, werefreshed and expanded the mandate of the Vietnam-Singapore ConnectivityFramework - a high level Ministerial bilateral coordinating mechanism unique toVietnam and Singapore launched in 2006 – to include cooperation in the new andemerging areas of energy, sustainability, and innovation in 2024.  Second, also in 2024, we will have the firstannual meeting of our Prime Ministers, a format will enable high leveloversight and direction for our bilateral cooperation.  

Deep economic cooperation has made ourrelationship mutually beneficial and remains the cornerstone of our bilateralrelations. There is no better symbol of such cooperation than theVietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIPs), which have thus far attracted 18.4billion USD worth of investment capital and created more than 300,000 jobs. Andin 2023 we saw five new VSIPs launched, with now a total of 18 VSIPs acrossNorthern, Central and Southern Vietnam. The continued success of the VSIP istestament to the strong confidence in Vietnam’s economic prospects and theGovernment’s efforts to create an enabling environment for foreigninvestors.  

Indeed, we are standing at a high point ofthe relationship, and well placed to take our relationship to the next level.In 2023, Singapore was the largest investor in Vietnam with over 6.8 billionUSD invested or almost 19% of the total foreign investment. Cumulatively, overthe years, Singapore has invested 74.51 billion USD into Vietnam which makes usVietnam’s second largest investor. Bilateral trade had already reached 31.3billion SGD (23.3 billion USD) in 2022. This was a 7.2% growth per annum from16.8 billion SGD a decade ago in 2013, when we first established our strategicpartnership. 

However, our relations go well beyond thetrade and investment figures, as impressive as they are.  Our people-to-people relations remain themost important pillar of our relationship. Many Singaporeans and Vietnamesetravel between our two countries to work, study, do business, or for tourism.Singapore was Vietnam’s fifth-largest source of tourism last year. TheVietnamese community in Singapore has grown to 25,000 – a more than tenfoldincrease over the past two decades. Their ability, resilience, and work ethichave made them valuable contributors to our society. We also have alongstanding partnership in human resource development. Vietnam is the toppartner of the Singapore Cooperation Programme (SCP), our flagship programmefor technical assistance. Over 21,000 Vietnamese officials have attended SCPcourses. Singapore will continue to share our experiences with Vietnam’sofficials, provinces, and municipalities for mutual growth and development.

Reporter:In February 2023, Vietnam and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) on green and digital economic partnership to deepen bilateral cooperationin the two emerging areas. What is your expectation from the MoU? Could youshare Singapore’s experiences in developing these fields and yourrecommendations for Vietnam in the coming time?

SingaporeanAmbassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam: As Vietnam’seconomy moves up the value chain and transitions towards a net-zero future,there is much scope for us to work together especially in the emerging areas ofgreen economy and digital economy. We therefore broke new ground to concludethe Green and Digital Economic Partnership during Prime Minister Pham MinhChinh’s visit to Singapore in February 2023. This agreement provides an institutional framework to coordinate onimportant projects in carbon credits, renewable energy, and the digitaleconomy.  This will facilitate and guideour cooperation in these new growth areas. We also upgraded the Singapore-Vietnam Connectivity Framework in August2023 to include these new areas of bilateral cooperation.  We expect that this will not only support thegreen and digital aspirations of both our countries, but also allow ourcooperation to serve as a pathfinder for ASEAN. 

As we look forward, there is much more wemust do to sustain the strong momentum of our Green and Digital Partnership in2024 and beyond. We will be focusing closely on further strengthening our Greenand Digital Partnership in 2024.  In linewith this objective, I would like to highlight just three areas where we expectmore exciting developments this year.

First, innovation. Singapore and Vietnamare among the top three start-up eco-systems in Southeast Asia. With our commongoal of driving economic growth through technology and innovation, there isscope for Singapore and Vietnam to tap on each other’s innovation eco-systemsfor partnerships, funding and talent.

Second, energy connectivity. Singapore andVietnam share a common vision of achieving net zero by 2050.  The scaling up of renewable energy anddevelopment of regional power grids will not only support our individualdecarbonisation efforts, but also promote greater infrastructural connectivityto help advance the region’s sustainable energy goals. Our Energy CooperationMOU has paved the way for both sides to explore closer collaboration in areassuch as renewable energy development, especially cross-border electricitytrading. In 2023, Vietnam approved an offshore wind site survey permit for across-border electricity trading proposal by PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation(PTSC) and Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd. This is the first important step forwardfor the Vietnam-Singapore Energy Project.

Third, sustainability. We urgently need to accelerate climate action to meetthe goals of the Paris Agreement. In October 2022, Singapore and Vietnam signedan MOU to collaborate on carbon credits, aligned with Article 6 of the ParisAgreement. We have substantially concluded the negotiations of anImplementation Agreement in 2023. We are looking forward to its early conclusionas it would provide the framework for us to collaborate in carbon creditsprojects compliant with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.  This puts both Singapore and Vietnam inexcellent positions to capture the opportunities generated by carbon markets. Welook forward to jointly implementing carbon credit generating projects in thecoming years, which could in turn spur a more vibrant carbon market in theregion.

Reporter:Vietnam will celebrate its traditional Lunar New Year in more than a month. Howdo you feel about the Tet atmosphere in Vietnam, and please share your plans tobolster the Vietnam – Singapore cooperation in 2024?

SingaporeanAmbassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam: The prospectsfor our bilateral cooperation is bright and promising in 2024 as we lookforward to celebrating the Lunar New Year. 

For all of us, a new year brings the hopeand promise of new beginnings.  Singaporeand Vietnam grapple with common challenges, especially around climate changeand digital transformation. One thing is certain: there are many things we canlearn from each other and lean on each other for.

Amid such a difficult external environment,Singapore and Vietnam must work even more closely together. 

For our bilateral relations, we are lookingto consolidate progress in areas where we have worked well, especially throughVSIPs and aggressively expand into new areas of cooperation such as carboncredits, renewable energy, talent and innovation, and the digital economy underour Green-Digital Economic Partnership. These will serve as a basis for the upgrading of our relationship to aComprehensive Strategic Partnership. 

But our close relationship is not justbased on shared interests, but also shared values. 

What I realise that is common to bothSingapore and Vietnam is how much the Lunar New Year is a time to gather asfamily. Eating together, listening to stories and rekindling bonds with ourloved ones. We value strong families as the foundation of a cohesive,harmonious society. Our families anchor our identity and sense of belonging.They inspire us to work hard and be better people. 

On that note, may I extend on behalf of allmy colleagues here at the Singapore Embassy, we wish all our Vietnamese friendsChúc mừng năm mới 2024!   We wish all ofyou more success, good health and much happiness for 2024.

Reporter: Thank you for your interview!