The PM made the statement during the talks held with his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong in the capital city of Hanoi on January 12 following an official welcome ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

For his part, Lee stressed that Singapore always attaches great importance to strengthening and developing friendly and comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam .

The two PMs expressed their joy at the fast and positive developments in the bilateral ties, especially in politics, economics, trade, investment, education-training, tourism, finance, transport and communications. They agreed to go on expanding the Vietnam-Singapore Connectivity Framework Agreement, which came into effect five years ago, to new fields such as construction and urban planning.

Dung spoke highly of Singapore ’s efforts to become one of Vietnam ’s leading trade and investment partners. He asked Lee to continue encouraging Singaporean businesses to speed up investment projects in Vietnam and proceed with a model calling for investment from a third country into both countries.

The Vietnamese PM lauded the performance of Vietnam-Singapore industrial parks and regarded them as a symbol of successful cooperation between the two countries.

The two PMs discussed ways to intensify bilateral ties in trade, education-training, tourism, culture, transport-communications and national defence; and to boost exchanges of the peoples, especially among youngsters and students.

Regarding international issues, the two PMs said Vietnam and Singapore reached a consensus to maintain their close relations in the framework of regional and international forums, namely ASEAN, APEC, ASEM and UN.

Lee congratulated Vietnam on taking the chair of ASEAN this year and vowed to support Vietnam in this task.

After the talks, Dung and Lee witnessed a ceremony to grant a working licence in Vietnam to the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) and the singing of cooperation agreements between the two countries’ businesses.

Later on the same day, Dung and his wife hold a banquet for Lee and his delegation who will conclude their official visit to Vietnam on January 15./.