President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Pham Tan Cong hosted a reception meeting with Mr. Jaya Ratnam, Ambassador of Singapore to Vietnam at VCCI Headquarters on September 29, 2021. The visit aimed to strengthen new cooperation opportunities between VCCI and the Embassy of Singapore.

At the meeting, VCCI President Cong said that VCCI recently held a dialogue between Prime Minister and  businesses where the Government was committed to working with businesses to facilitate the business environment and expected to receive continued support of Singaporean companies.

In response, Ambassador of Singapore Jaya Ratnam also expressed his delight that the Covid-19 situation in Vietnam has eased and shared that the Singapore business community in Vietnam as well as in other countries is currently facing numerous difficulties caused by Covid-19. However, many Singaporean firms in Vietnam are planning to expand and invest more in the near future.

“It proves that Singaporean businesses still have great confidence in the business environment in Vietnam. In the coming time, when Vietnam reopens, I believe that there will be many new investment projects and many investors will return,” he affirmed.

At the meeting, VCCI President Pham Tan Cong said that Vietnam is very interested in advanced technology, digitization and infrastructure and sees them as leading industries for economic development and recovery. Although the Covid-19 pandemic is causing numerous difficulties and challenges for businesses, this is also an opportunity for them to apply the Fourth Industrial Revolution for continued development. Vietnam expects Singapore to share more experience and hopes to learn from Singapore's Smart Industry Index to evaluate and score businesses.

In addition, he proposed deploying a digital platform for businesses of the two countries to participate in, expand connectivity, buy and sell goods and services, exchange information, share experiences and good practices among others. This digital platform can be deployed within the framework of the Vietnam - Singapore Business Council (VSBC), open to all businesses.

Moreover, Vietnam hopes that Singapore can share and open training programs for Vietnamese businesses on how to manage a business and how to do good business as Singaporean companies do, he emphasized. If they have similar working styles, they will cooperate and develop better.

The Singapore Ambassador completely agreed with proposals by the VCCI President, saying that he will discuss with the Singaporean Chairman of the Vietnam - Singapore Business Council (VSBC) Douglas Foos and the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) to foster VSBC's activities and build a digital business platform for companies of both nations.

At the meeting, he said that Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc will pay a state visit to Singapore in the coming time. The Embassy wishes to coordinate with VCCI to organize and offer initiatives to promote trade and support businesses of the two countries. The Singapore Embassy proposes fostering two main areas: Digital economy and infrastructure.

Likewise, VCCI President Pham Tan Cong said that VCCI always desires and readily coordinates with the Singapore Embassy to carry out activities to further strengthen trade and investment ties between the two countries.