Singapore (VNA) – Up to 110 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Vietnamattended a conference in Singapore on March 10 to seek trade and investmentpartnership.

Thebusinesses’ participation benefited from an initiative jointly made by theVietnam-Singapore Friendship Association, the Vietnamese Embassy in Singaporeand the Vietnamese Entrepreneurs’ Club under the Vietnamese Association ofSmall- and Medium-sized Enterprises.

In his speech at the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore Nguyen Tien Minhhighlighted the significance the conference and the presence of Vietnam’s SMEsat the event, saying this shows the businesses’ dynamism to look for businessand investment opportunities in foreign markets.

Through Singapore, Vietnamese firms can make inroads into other markets in theregion and the world, especially Europe – the important trade partner of bothVietnam and Singapore, he noted.

ThianTai Chew from the Singapore Business Federation(SBF) said many of the SBF’s 24,000 members,mostly SMEs, are interested in Vietnam’s food, retail, e-commerce, supplychain, and infrastructure and urban development.

These sectors are Singaporean SMEs’ strengths and they want to share experiencewith Vietnamese partners, he said, reporting the SBF’s latest survey that saysVietnam ranks third among ASEAN member nations that Singaporean firms want topour their investment into.

The Vietnam-Singapore relations have recorded strong developments in recentyears across such fields as economy, defence, education-training, andpeople-to-people exchange.

Singapore is Vietnam’s third largest foreign investor, with a total investmentof over 38 billion USD poured into 1,600 projects in terms of processing,technology, production, real estate, construction, transport and logistics.

The country is also the 12th biggest trade partner of Vietnam, withtwo-way trade doubling in the last decade, hitting nearly 16 billion USD in2016.

Recent high-ranking visits of the two countries’ leaders helped lift thebilateral ties, promising to open many new opportunities for the two sides’ enterprisesto foster trade and investment links.

The upcoming visit to Vietnam by Singaporean Prime Minister Lee HsienLoong in late March is expected to promote all-around ties between the twocountries, especially in people-to-people exchange. -VNA