Speaking at a Thursday meeting with representatives from the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), deputy director of HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC), Cao Thi Phi Van, said that Singapore was currently the second biggest investor out of 140 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with registered capital of USD71.85 billion.
"Singapore is also the largest investor among 117 countries and territories investing in HCM City with 1,677 projects totalling more than USD14 billion in investment," she noted.
Deputy director of HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre, Cao Thi Phi Van, speaks at the meeting
The official stressed that the southern metropolis would continue improving its business climate to attract foreign investors, especially from Singapore.
"With a strategic location and a population of more than 10 million, HCM City has great potential to attract foreign investors," she said. "Located in the Southern Key Economic Zone, which includes HCM City and seven surrounding provinces, the city is home to 17 industrial parks. We also have highly skilled workers with more than 4.6 million employees and have the potential to become a national manufacturing hub.
Van also added that they were giving priority to quality projects with added value and high competitiveness, ensuring environmental protection and sustainable development.
Speaking at the meeting, which was attended by nearly 70 enterprises in HCM City and 28 Singaporean enterprises in many fields, SCCCI's chairman, Kho Choon Keng, said there was great potential for further collaboration and partnership between Singapore businesses and their Vietnamese counterparts.
“Vietnam has fast emerged as a popular market of keen interest to Singapore companies,” he said.
“Many Singapore companies have established presence or are actively identifying opportunities across a wide range of sectors in Vietnam, including infrastructure development, manufacturing, transport, logistics, education, tourism, financial and agriculture,” he said.
They have even ventured beyond the main cities of Hanoi and HCM City into other regions of the country, he added.
Singaporean businesses also seek investment opportunities in new areas, including sustainability, the green economy and the digital economy, according to Keng.
“Our bilateral trade has grown steadily over the past decade, reaching S$31 billion (USD22.9 billion) in 2022,” he said.
As of May last year, Singapore was the second-largest cumulative investor in Vietnam, with investments totalling S$94.5 billion (USD69.8 billion), according to Keng.
Established in 1906, SCCCI is a major Singaporean organisation with about 5,000 corporate members and more than 160 trade association members, representing over 40,000 companies, according to Keng.
HCM City attracted USD332.3 million worth of foreign investment in the first two months of the year, up 43.1 per cent year-on-year, according to its Statistics Office.
It included USD97.7 million from 101 new projects, up 22.8 per cent, and $47.6 million in 29 existing ones.
Singapore topped the list of investors with USD76.6 million.
As of February 20, the city had 11,447 foreign-invested projects worth nearly USD56.33 billion, according to the office.