Vietnam asks second largest FDI partner to support access to green finance

On July 7, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in coordination with the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), organized the 7th Singapore Regional Business Forum in Hanoi, with the theme "Promoting regional cooperation for sustainable development".

Speaking at the forum, Party Central Committee Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said that the world economy and the ASEAN region have never had to deal with intertwined challenges at the same time. They have also never witnessed such determined efforts by countries to overcome the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and gradually restore economic development.

In the bleak picture of the world economy, the Asia-Pacific region remains the growth engine, contributing about 39% to GDP and 36% of global exports. The ASEAN region alone is forecast to grow by 4.8% in 2023, seven times the growth rate of the developed countries. Singapore continues to be one of the leading innovation drivers in the region.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai speaks at the forum.

Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said that in the context of the world's general difficulties, Vietnam cannot avoid negative impacts. As an economy with a large openness but still modest in scale, with limited competitiveness and resilience to external shocks, Vietnam's economy continues to be significantly affected by the world and regional economic context; especially the processing and manufacturing industry, investment attraction, real estate business, global value supply chain, etc.

Faced with that situation, Vietnam has synchronously and effectively implemented solutions and policies to adapt to the developments of the situation; successfully achieving the dual goal of both economic recovery and development.

Vietnam's macro economy continues to be stable, inflation is controlled, growth is restored, and major economic balances are ensured.

VSIP is a symbol of Vietnam - Singapore cooperation.

The Deputy Prime Minister assessed that Singapore's 12 VSIP industrial parks in 9 provinces and cities of Vietnam are operating increasingly effectively, becoming a symbol of economic cooperation between the two countries.

As the second largest investor in Vietnam with more than 3,200 projects and 73.4 billion USD in registered capital, Singaporean enterprises participate in most of Vietnam's economic sectors and fields and always seriously implement projects on schedule and achieve high efficiency.

In contrast, Vietnamese investors invested in Singapore in nearly 150 projects, with a total registered investment of nearly 700 million USD, mainly focusing on the fields of science and technology.

In terms of trade, Singapore is one of Vietnam's leading partners in the region with total two-way export turnover reaching 9.2 billion USD in 2022, an increase of about 11.6% compared to 2021.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said that the results were still not commensurate with the cooperation potential of the two countries. He suggested that businesses of the two countries need to be more proactive and implement their investment commitments properly, and do what they said they would do.

Representatives of Vietnamese and Singaporean businesses signed a memorandum of understanding at the forum.

As a leading financial center in the region, Vietnam hopes that Singapore's business community will continue to support Vietnam in accessing shifting investment sources and green financial sources.

He suggested that the two sides expand investment cooperation in areas where Singapore has experience and strengths and Vietnam has demand and development potential; especially developing ecological industrial zones associated with ecological urban areas, creating an urban industrial ecosystem for digital transformation, energy transformation, and training high-quality human resources.

Expand the scope of cooperation, promote the effective role of the cooperation framework, connect the two economies of Vietnam - Singapore and the digital economic and green economic partnership framework that was just signed by the two countries in February 2023.

“In the spirit of harmonious benefits and shared risks, the Vietnamese Government affirms that it will always accompany, listen, share, support, and create favorable conditions for foreign investors in general and Singaporean investors in particular to successfully, long-term, and sustainably invest and do business in Vietnam. Your success is also our success,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

Mr. Tan See Leng, Minister of Labour and Second Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore, said that recently, Singaporean companies have also expanded their investment in Vietnam from the South to the North, playing an important role in the Vietnamese economy.

The global economy is experiencing supply chain disruptions, with a trend toward trade protectionism. Therefore, we must adapt, not only to digitize but also to innovate.

At the forum, representatives of Vietnamese and Singaporean businesses signed 12 memorandums of understanding on sustainability, digitalization, financial services and human resource development to promote cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and Singapore as well as the region.

Vietnam Economic Forum 2022: Real estate hotspots, broken supply chains Labor, capital market and real estate market, digital transformation and supply chain diversification. These are the issues that will be discussed a lot at the Vietnam Economic Forum 2022.

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