By September, 2010, Singapore was the 5^th largest country from a total of 80 countries and territories that invest in Vietnam, with 851 projects in fields such as education and training, finance, information and communications, trade and service, transportation, infrastructure and tourism, with a total of registered capital of US$17.9 billion.

Many of Singapore’s businesses have paid special attention to other fields, including the processing industry, real estate, and construction.

At the event, Mr. Raymond Lui said that apart from attracting foreign businesses to invest in Singapore, the Government also encourages Singaporean businesses to invest overseas.

He also affirmed that a majority of Singapore’s businesses are long-term, even during economic global crisis (2008-2009), Singapore’s businesses kept investing in foreign countries. For example, in infrastructure, Singaporean businesses have been operating in Vietnam for over 10 years and continue to develop more.

Mr. Raymond Lui emphasised that in real estate, many Singaporean investors have made achievements in Vietnam such as Capital Land, and Banyan Tree, Allgreen Properties.

In particular, the Keppel Land Group has been in the Vietnamese market for 12 years and it now has a total investment capital of US$3.2 billion, most of which is in Ho Chi Minh City including The Estella and Waterfront development.

Vietnam is calling more investment in other fields including electronics, information technology, hotel and tourism services and agricultural processing, which Singapore’s businesses have a strong advantage. However, Singapore’s businesses still lack information on Vietnam and businesses don’t have ties with each other, following Le Truong Son, an investment counsellor from the Vietnamese embassy in Singapore. Vietnam has 20 businesses that invest in Singapore, with capital of over US$100 million.

To push cooperation between both countries and attract more Singaporean investment in Vietnam, the Government has appointed representatives to Singapore to promote investment and assist cooperation between both countries.

Delegates at the conference also suggested that Vietnam and Singapore should establish better information channels to provide enough information on investment the environment, business, and other markets.