Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam speaks at the working session. (Photo: VNA)

Singaporean Ambassador to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam paid a working trip to Lang Son on November 8 to explore cooperation and investment opportunities in the northern border province.

During a working session with Ambassador Ratnam and his entourage, Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Quoc Doan briefed the guest on the potential and strengths of Lang Son, stressing that the locality has become an attractive destination for domestic and foreign investment.

According to Doan, Lang Son shares over 231km of borderline with China, and holds a crucial role as a gateway connecting China with ASEAN countries. It also serves as the starting point for two important economic corridors – Nanning (China) – Lang Son - Hanoi - Hai Phong (Vietnam) and Lang Son - Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai. The locality has two international border gates, one bilateral border gate, and nine auxiliary border gates.

In recent years, the local authorities have paid special attention to improving the investment and business environment and speeding up administrative reform to facilitate the activities of investors and businesses.

Since 2021, the local authorities have issued investment certificates and given in-principle approval to 57 projects worth over 12.3 trillion VND (504.8 million USD), including major projects, such as Huu Nghi - Chi Lang border gate expressway, Dong Dang (Lang Son) - Tra Linh (Cao Bang province) expressway; and VSIP Industrial Park and industrial clusters.

The infrastructure construction and business investment project at the VSIP Lang Son Industrial Park with a total investment of nearly 275 million USD, which was given greenlight in May this year, becomes the largest investment project in Lang Son, and the first one invested by Singapore to date. This project’s first phase is expected to be completed before September 30, 2025.

Doan expressed his hope that the provincial People’s Committee and the Singaporean Embassy in Vietnam will work closely to speed up the implementation of the project.

He called on Singaporean firms specialising in infrastructure development, supply chain and logistics service, green economy, and agricultural product processing, to invest in industrial parks and clusters, and border economic zone in Lang Son.

For his part, Ratnam spotlighted the flourishing development of cooperation and friendship between the two countries.

The VSIP (Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park) model has been quite successful with an occupancy rate of 83%, attracting 18.7 billion USD in investment and providing employment for over 300,000 labourers, he said.

As of June 2023, Singapore maintained its leading position in ASEAN and ranked second among 143 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with 3,200 projects worth 73.4 billion USD in 51 localities nationwide.

The Singapore Business Federation (SBF) will send a delegation to Lang Son in early 2024 to explore local investment attraction policies, he revealed.