HCMC - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the afternoon of April 25 arrived in Singapore for an official visit aimed at deepening bilateral relations and creating new cooperative breakthroughs, according to the Government news website.

The Singapore visit by PM Phuc occurs at a time when the two countries are celebrating the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and the fifth anniversary of the establishment of strategic partnership.

Singapore has remained one of Vietnam’s biggest partners since 1996. Two-way trade between the two Southeast Asian nations expanded from US$7.1 billion in 2016 to US$8.3 billion last year. Vietnam mainly exports seafood, coffee, pepper, vegetables and fruits to Singapore.

Singapore’s foreign direct investment in Vietnam has increased strongly since 1998. Last year, Singapore was the third biggest investor of Vietnam with more than 1927 projects worth of nearly US$42 billion.

Singaporean investors are mainly active in real estate, processing, manufacturing and construction sectors.

The Vietnam Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) are seen as the symbol of effective Singaporean investment in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam has 65 fuel, mining, retail, information technology and service projects in Singapore.

The two nations have also cooperated in education, defense, culture and sports. There are 9,000 Vietnamese studying in Singapore.

Vietnam and Singapore are jointly participating in multilateral and international forums such as those of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the United Nations.

Singapore supports Vietnam to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in the 2020-2021 period.

After his official visit to Singapore, PM Phuc will attend the 32nd ASEAN Summit this Friday and Saturday. The summit is aimed at stepping up cooperation to boost the regional grouping’s resilience and ability to respond to challenges.