The Government has recently issued an action plan aimed at further improving the efficiency of the collective economy in the new period.

The action plan was meant to implement Resolution 20-NQ/TW (Resolution 20) issued at the fifth session of the 13th Party Central Committee on continuing to innovate, develop, and improve the efficiency of collective economy in the new period.

Resolution 20 clearly states the preset goals of developing 45,000 cooperatives with 8 million members, 340 federations of cooperatives by 2030. Particularly, at least 50 percent of cooperatives will join value chains and over 5,000 of them will apply high technology.

By 2045, at least 20 percent of the population will engage in cooperatives. Over 90 percent of cooperatives will perform properly. At least three federations of cooperatives will be listed in Top 300 rankings of the world’s largest cooperatives of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).  

To materialize the aforesaid goals, the action plan set five key tasks and measures as follows:

First, fully aware of the nature, position, role and importance of the collective economy in the socialist oriented market economy;

Second, continue to renovate and perfect mechanisms and policies to encourage and support the development of the collective economy;

Third, renovate and improve the operation of collective organizations and apply mechanisms and policies to encourage the increase of contributed capital and capital mobilized from members to increase operating capital, increase investment and development capital, increase assets and undivided funds of collective economic organizations.

Fourth, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management over the collective economy; build a centralized, unified and transparent state management apparatus for the collective economy in directing and operating from central to local levels; build a contingent of cadres, civil servants and public employees who perform the task of state management and support and development of the collective economy with expertise, and intensive training in the collective economy.

Fifth, strengthen the leadership of the Party, promoting the role of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front, socio-political, socio-professional organizations and the Viet Nam Cooperative Union in collective economic development.

Statistics showed Viet Nam has a total of 28,237 cooperatives, of which 18,785 are active in agriculture, and 9,452 in non-agricultural sectors (industry, trade - services, transport, construction, environment, civil credit fund, and others).

UK trade mission visits HCM City

Twelve healthcare companies and organisations from the UK paid a visit to Ho Chi Minh City from February 7-10 to learn about Vietnam's healthcare sector and explore collaboration opportunities with local partners.

On this occasion, the British Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City organised a workshop on February 9 focussing on digital health, clinical services, and medical education and training.

Addressing the event, British Ambassador Iain Frew said: “The UK is a world leader in healthcare and life sciences innovation. We have the universal healthcare system led by the NHS, world-class universities, and research institutions. Outside the UK, we work to harness the combined power of our exports and investment with our international partners.

“The Healthcare trade mission is an opportunity to showcase to Vietnam some of the leading healthcare organisations. I am confident that the organisations in this mission are some of the best providers in digital health, clinical services, and medical education and training suitable for Vietnamese partners," he added.

Fertiliser prices likely to remain at high level in coming months
     
Fertiliser prices in the coming months are forecasted to remain at a high level due to the global market's continuing gas and petrol price fluctuations.

According to Phung Ha, general secretary and vice chairman of the Vietnam Fertiliser Association, many experts in the fertiliser and finance world forecast that fertiliser prices are falling, but the possibility of them remaining at a high level remains.

Gas and petrol prices greatly affect the production cost of fertiliser because gas prices account for about 80-90 per cent of the production cost of ammonia - an important input for urea and DAP fertilisers. Therefore, fertiliser prices in the coming months will still fluctuate unpredictably.

According to a survey of some fertiliser companies and trading agents, the current fertiliser price is at VND10.5 million per tonne of Phu My urea fertiliser and VND19 million per tonne for potassium sulphate fertiliser, while DAP fertiliser price ranges from VND17 to VND25.5 million per tonne depending on the type.

Ha said that the fertiliser prices in 2021-2022 increased rapidly by VND1-1.9 million per tonne. However, China has started to open up the market and has not been limited to exporting 29 types of fertiliser, so the supply of fertiliser in the world market has been abundant, and fertiliser prices have also started to cool down.

For fertiliser supply for the winter-spring crop 2022-2023, at present, the production capacity of urea at four factories under the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) and the Vietnam Chemical Group (Vinachem) has reached 2.5 million tonnes per year, while the domestic demand is only 1.6-1.8 million tonnes each year.

The domestic supply of phosphate-containing fertiliser and NPK fertiliser is higher than the local demand. However, Viet Nam still has to import about 40 per cent of DAP fertiliser and all potassium fertiliser volume to meet the domestic demand.

Vu Xuan Hong, deputy general director of Lam Thao Fertiliser and Chemical Joint Stock Company, said that to ensure the supply and reasonable price of fertiliser for farmers, the company prepared before the Tet holiday a large volume of raw materials for production within at least three months, such as SA, sulfur, potassium.

Lam Thao expects to meet the supply for the agricultural production of the winter-spring crop 2022-2023 with over 30,000 tonnes of fertilisers of all kinds in store and a production output of nearly 2,000 tonnes of fertiliser per day, Hong said.

According to Hong, to keep stability in fertiliser prices for farmers, Lam Thao has found input materials with good prices, such as SA imported from the Middle East and Africa and urea imported from domestic factories.

With these efforts, the market prices of Lam Thao's fertiliser products are kept stable compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.

Besides that, Lam Thao has had efforts to reduce the cost of transporting fertiliser in the context of higher gasoline prices and handling costs.

Accordingly, the company has diversified forms of transporting fertiliser, including using cheaper transport means such as railway, waterway, and river instead of road transport as before, Hong said.

According to Hoang Van Hong, deputy director of the National Centre for Agricultural Promotion, the centre works closely with localities to guide farmers in using fertilisers reasonably, economically and effectively. It also encourages farmers to increase the use of organic fertilisers.

HCM City hopeful of getting $4.5b FDI in 2023
     
HCM City will be able to attract US$4.1- 4.5 billion worth of FDI this year if the economic situation stabilises and inflation remains under controlled, according to its Department of Planning and Investment

Pham Tuan Anh, deputy head of its Foreign Economic Relations Sub-Department, said last year, despite being the locality worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the city attracted $3.94 billion, a 5.4 per cent increase from 2021 and the highest among the country’s 63 provinces and cities.

Notably, inflows changed direction and, instead of the property sector, went into technology and manufacturing, he said.

The global economy would continue to face challenges this year, and so the city could struggle to increase FDI much from last year, he pointed out.

If the economic situation stabilises and inflation remains under controlled, it could get $4.1-4.5 billion, he told chinhphu.vn.

As of January 20 FDI for the year was worth $179 million, or 74 per cent higher year-on-year.

Of this, $87 million went into 50 new projects, $55 million was spent on acquiring stakes in other companies and $37 million went into 20 existing projects.

Singapore ranked first with 12 projects and $77 million, followed by Taiwan with $3.2 million and Hong Kong with $2.2 million.

Anh said the city has difficulty attracting investment, especially in large manufacturing projects, because it has little land left.

So its FDI strategy involves attracting foreign investment not only directly but also into supply chains in the south whose headquarters and R&D, logistics, training and support centres are located in the city and production activities are carried out in neighbouring localities, he added. 

Vietnam’s automobile imports continue rising

Vietnam’s automobile imports continued rising in January with 14,457 units, and a total value of USD 314.50 million, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

The figures represented an increase of 218.90 percent in volume and 148.90 percent in value compared to the same period last year.

Thailand remained the biggest car exporter of Vietnam, with a volume of over 6,693 units totalling USD 125.47 million in the first month of this year. It was followed by Indonesia with 6,179 units, totalling USD 89.70 million, the US with 432 units valued at USD28.40 million, and China with 328 units valued at USD 11.26 million.

Vietnam posted an all-time high import of automobiles with 173,467 units valued at USD 3.84 billion last year, surpassing the previous record of about 160,000 units in 2021

Auto imports are forecast to fall this year, given the substantial investments in manufacturing lines in Vietnam of automakers such as Hyundai, Toyota and BMW.

Japanese enterprises accelerate investment in Vietnam

At the meeting with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and Nakajima Takeo, chief representative of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), said that Japanese enterprises could not ignore Vietnam when looking around Asia for a destination to invest.

Nakajima cited the survey results of Japanese enterprises investing abroad in the fiscal year 2022. In particular, the proportion of enterprises forecasted to be profitable in doing business in Vietnam in 2022 is 59.5 per cent, up 5.2 per cent compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, up to 53.6 per cent of surveyed enterprises answered they had improved their business profit prospects in 2023 compared to the last year.
"The business profit outlook of Japanese enterprises in Vietnam has recovered strongly after the pandemic," said Nakajima.

Besides this, 60 per cent of Japanese enterprises said they planned to expand their investment in Vietnam in the next one to two years, up 4.7 per cent compared to the previous year and marking the highest among Southeast Asian countries.

Nakajima mentioned another survey by JETRO that showed the attractiveness of Vietnam's investment market ranks second after the US Japanese companies.

The above survey results seem to reflect the current trend of Japanese enterprises in Vietnam. Early this month,Thua Thien-Hue People's Committee of Thua Thien - Hue province issued a plan to hold the groundbreaking ceremony of the AEON Mall Hue project, which is expected to be on February 11, 2023. With the total investment of more than about $170 million, this will be AEON's large-scale commercial centre in Vietnam.

In addition, Nakajima highlighted that the $35-million Fujikin Danang Research, Development and Manufacture Centre, funded by Fujikin Incorporated from Japan, was inaugurated in Danang in November 2022.

However, the chief representative of JETRO pointed out some key obstacles for Japan to invest in Vietnam, such as administrative procedures, salary increase problems, input costs, and transport costs.

Accordingly, Minister Dung said it was necessary to clarify the issues mentioned by Nakajima. Regarding administrative procedures, it needs to identify IF the problem lies in legal regulations or implementation. Even with the increase in input costs, it is also necessary to clarify which items are managed by the state, and which are due to market supply and demand.

The minister suggested that the Japanese side needs to strengthen support for Vietnamese enterprises to improve their capacity because this will help improve the localisation rate, and the rate of on-site purchase of Japanese enterprises.

Dung and Nakajima expect that Japan’s investment in Vietnam will increase in the time to come, especially in 2023 as the two countries mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

Office lease activity trending towards non-business districts

The office rental market in the vicinity of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is showing strong signs of growth, especially the trend of renting offices in non-central business district areas.

According to Colliers, the office leasing segment in Vietnam is gradually recovering with the majority of demand coming from businesses looking to expand and new international companies entering the market.

The supply of Grade A office space is extremely scarce in the central areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City due to a lack of land fund, Colliers said.

In the coming time, the rental price and absorption rate of the whole office market is expected to increase sharply, thanks to the reopening of international routes and the strong resurgence of the non-central office market. Supply from projects in new urban areas will be a fresh choice for businesses in the context that supply of office space in central business districts (CBDs) is increasingly scarce and rents are increasing.

Pham Duy Khanh, a representative of lease group Nice Office in Ho Chi Minh City said, “Moving out of CBDs is being favoured by small- and medium-sized enterprises. Renting an office in Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, District 4, District 7, or Tan Binh is quite affordable for the needs of such businesses.”

Khanh said that in these areas, with offices equivalent to the level of comfort compared to offices for rent in District 1 or District 3, the rental price will be 10-30 per cent lower.

Moreover, currently, thanks to convenient transport infrastructure, it is easy to move from the suburbs to the city centre. It takes only 10 minutes to travel from Phu Nhuan, Binh Thanh, or District 4 to the city centre.

In non-CBD areas, many office buildings are newer and have modern facilities and equipment. “If the location is not a top priority, then businesses should consider choosing non-CBDs offices to optimise operating costs,” Khanh said.

Figures from Savills Vietnam reported that the average monthly rent for a Grade B building is currently at $34 per sq.m and $60 per sq.m per month for grade A office space.

In recent years, the supply of offices for lease is scarce and the demand for office space in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi has always remained high, so rents still tend to increase despite the market being burdened with many difficulties.

According to Savills, the Ho Chi Minh City area alone will welcome about 60,000sq.m of new office space, mostly from non-CBD areas of Tan Phu district and District 7.

In the central area, businesses are also tending to open more back-office areas or move offices to places near the centre such as districts 2 and 7, to reach their customers and partners quickly.

For example, the OfficeHaus office project in the centre of Celadon City, Tan Phu will be known a new destination outside CBDs.

In addition, there are a number of prominent projects in District 7 such as UOA, Cobi, and CMC Creative Zone, which are also known as high-quality, high-tech office projects with affordable rental costs.

In Hanoi, meanwhile, the western area is being assessed as having the fastest growth rate currently.

In the future, most of the supply will be concentrated in the Starlake project area in Tay Ho district with about 300,000sq.m of office space, mainly in the A and B segments.

In addition to the actual rentals, businesses must allocate budgets for cleaning, parking, printing, and other operating expenses. However, this fee at an off-centre office is often cut significantly to the most optimal prices. As a result, businesses will be able to use their cut-off fess for improving business performance and employee satisfaction.

In the downtown area, the cost of living is mostly higher. For offices in non-CBD areas, a more affordable cost of living promises to bring many great advantages to businesses. For example, companies and investors in Saigon Hi-Tech Park can enjoy a number of incentives and attractive tax schemes.

In addition, office projects outside the centre often have the advantage of a large land fund, which can develop green areas to help employees feel relaxed and have more fresh air, creating a healthier working environment for employees.

In some other cases, Hoang Minh Hang, director of Star Investment and Property Leasing JSC, said that some businesses have stalled production and business activities and their revenue is affected, forcing them to narrow the office space to save costs or move to an area further from the centre.

Representative offices of many foreign-led companies can now be found in provinces neighbouring Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where many industrial zones have been developed. Accordingly, in addition to a head office in big cities, tenants are oriented to develop satellite offices in neighbouring areas to directly manage their business in the localities.

Banks urged to reduce costs to cope with NIM drops

To ensure net interest margin (NIM), banks are often choosing to raise output interest rates for borrowers but reduce the ability to fulfill debt obligations, while the central bank has also requested cuts in admin and expenses.

VIB’s latest financial report shows that at the beginning of 2023 its NIM reached 4.5 per cent, thanks to a retail-focused strategy and high-quality medium and long-term mobilised capital, while maintaining the stability of liquidity and interest rates in the context of market volatility. Similarly, HD Saison’s strong recovery is thought to have contributed to the expansion of HDB’s NIM.

MSB has announced business results in 2022 showing that its NIM was at a good growth rate compared to the previous year, reaching 4.5 per cent. A senior MSB leader said that it is the result of a strategy focusing on promoting business activities in the personal customer segment, applying digitalisation for new, market-appropriate products combined with effective coordination of high-quality mobilised capital.

However, not every bank’s NIM has improved. A senior leader of VietinBank said that its NIM decreased mainly because it has outstanding loans and interest according to the country’s interest rate support programme, topping the whole banking system with a loan balance of nearly VND9 trillion ($383.8 million). On the other hand, as corporate bonds often have higher interest rates than ordinary loans, in the context of the corporate bond market’s difficulties, it has adversely affected NIM.

The leader added that one of the reasons for the decline in NIM is that the mobilisation with high interest rates can increase the input costs of banks. To ensure NIM, banks often choose the solution of raising output interest rates for borrowers.

In the current difficult economic context, this contributes to reducing borrowers’ ability to fulfill their debt repayment obligations, which will affect banking asset quality.

Data from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) up to the end of 2022 showed that the whole system’s credit increased by 12.87 per cent compared to the end of 2021. Meanwhile, deposits flowing into the system through organisations and individuals only increased by about 5.99 per cent compared to the beginning of the year.

At the end of last year, the SBV requested that credit institutions continue to reduce operating costs, administrative procedures, and unnecessary expenses to have room to reduce lending interest rates. “The SBV will monitor cases where institutions continue to raise interest rates and take measures to deal with them,” said an SBV document.

More specifically, the operator requested to control the savings interest rate below 9.5 per cent, but in fact, surveys showed that there were still some banks with higher deposits. According to experts, the consequences of the interest rate race can be seen in the first quarter of 2023.

Indeed, according to a recent summary by Bao Viet Securities Company (BVSC), the average 12-month deposit interest rate in January continued to increase by 7 basis points (bps) compared to December, to 8.49 per cent. Thus, 12-month deposit rates increased by 268 bps over the same period. Meanwhile, the 6-month term averaged 7.92 per cent, up 11 bps from the December average and 292 bps over the same period.

Elsewhere, last week the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4.5-4.75 per cent. Similarly, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England also held policy meetings and raised interest rates by 50 bps, the highest level since 2008.

BVSC believes that the pressure to raise interest rates will remain as central banks around the world still have plans to raise interest rates, especially the Fed. Besides that, when the credit balance in the system in the past year exceeded the mobilisation level, domestic banks are also under pressure to attract deposits to ensure capital adequacy criteria, so interest rates may need to be increased.

In addition, the SBV also has the task of stabilising prices, especially in the first months of this year when inflation pressure has started since the previous quarter and is still considerable, with BVSC forecasting that it may exceed the inflation target by 4.5 per cent in the first months of the year. Therefore, interest rates are unlikely to see a downward movement in the first months of 2023.

Tran Thi Khanh Hien, head of Analysis at VNDirect Securities, added that the SBV will continue to tighten monetary policy in the next couple of years, in the context of macroeconomic fluctuations.

Although interbank interest rates have cooled down at the end of 2022 after a period of strong increase due to the SBV’s withdrawal of VND from the system to balance the exchange rate and businesses buying back bonds ahead of time, the interbank interest rate is forecasted to stay around 5-6 per cent for the overnight term.

Rising bad debt threat looms large

Despite a bright business outlook, non-performing loans are causing significant concerns to banks amid a challenging environment in both the domestic and global market, according to industry experts.

In late 2022, non-performing loans (NPLs) at Hanoi-based private lender ABBank stood at $102.8 million, a 46 per cent jump from the start of the year.

Earlier, the bank set aside nearly $33.78 million to hedge against credit risks, so just counted $74 million in pre-tax profit last year, down 13 per cent on 2021, equal to just 55 per cent of the full-year profit target.

By the end of 2022, the NPL ratio at tech-driven TPBank rose 17 per cent compared to the outset of the year, representing $59 million in the bank’s total outstanding balances, with potentially irrecoverable debts accounting for the largest proportion.

TPBank has put off more than $80 million to provision against credit risks.

The fourth-quarter financial statement of Hanoi-based lender VPBank shows that by late 2022 the bank’s consolidated NPT ratio, including that of consumer finance division FE Credit, fetched 4.73 per cent, while that of the parent bank alone stood at just 2.19 per cent.

At leading state-owned lender Vietcombank, its NPL ratio hit 0.67 per cent valued at $333 million with loan loss reserve (LLR) ratio topping the banking system at 465 per cent.

The NPL ratio at other state lender BIDV was kept at 0.9 per cent out of the bank’s total outstanding balance, and LLR ratio reaching 245 per cent.

By the end of 2022, the NPL ratio at Techcombank stood at 0.9 per cent, higher compared to 2021 yet deemed as low compared to peers in the system, in which the loan loss coverage ratio reached 125 per cent.

Meanwhile, the NPL surplus at MBB jumped 54 per cent to $218.6 million, in which potentially irrecoverable debts amounted $99.7 million, a nearly three-fold increase on-year, pushing up the NPL ratio from 0.9 to 1.09 per cent.

Bad debts at banks have tended to rise due to the challenging environment caused by the pandemic, making it hard to collect debts. Experts believe that the hardships facing the economy will become even more apparent going forward, and on-balance sheet NPLs are expected to swell further.

Tran Thi Khanh Hien, head of Research at Hanoi-based VNDirect Securities, said that Q4 business results of listed banks last year kept surging compared to a similar period in the year before.

Banks’ credit expense hiked 1.7 per cent compared to 1.3 per cent rise in the previous quarter. Although credit growth slowed in Q4, banks still had to make provision for earlier disbursed loans. The credit costs, however, had decreased to pre-epidemic levels, Hien explained.

It is forecast that in 2023, the on-balance sheet NPLs will come at 2 per cent, and the gross bad debt will be around 4 per cent. Meanwhile, the gross bad debt level of the Vietnamese credit institution system fetches around 4.99 per cent, proving high compared to regional peers.

Hien from VNDirect Securities noted that banks’ profits sufficient to support the strengthening of provisioning was a bright spot in the general picture. Hien, however, said that the liquidity stress for businesses would persist in 2023, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

According to Hien, the pressure to increase provisions will lead to surging provision costs in 2023-2024.

Banks bolster financial strength via M&As and capital hikes

Since the start of the year, several banks have been busy with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital hike ventures to bolster financial health and keep up with ever-increasing development needs.

In early February, the Board of Directors of Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex) gave the nod for the stake transfer plan at PG Bank, as Petrolimex intends to divest its stake through a public auction on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.

The starting price will be chosen by whichever is the highest between the price determined by the organisation at VND21,300 (90 US cents) per share or the average reference price of one share over 30 consecutive trading sessions on the unlisted public company market before the date of approval for the capital transfer plan.

Petrolimex's divestment gives PG Bank the opportunity to find strategic shareholders with the potential for capital increases after 12 years of standing still. Currently, PG Bank has the lowest charter capital and total assets of any bank in Vietnam.

Raising charter capital in the forthcoming time is deemed necessary to help banks develop and expand business operations and increase their resilience in a volatile economy.
In mid-January, Eximbank's shares had a tumultuous trading session with a put-through trading volume touching 134 million shares, and a total value close to $148.7 million. This was the session marking Sumitomo Mitsui's (SMBC) completion of divestment from Eximbank for transfer to domestic investors.

After SMBC's divestment from Eximbank, all eyes turned to VPBank.

VPBank had planned to complete the sale of 15 per cent of their capital to a foreign strategic partner last year, but the deal seems to have slowed amid the complicated global economic situation.

Talking to investors recently, Luu Thi Thao, deputy general director of VPBank said, "The process of working with partners is still going well, but the roadmap to sell 15 per cent stake to strategic investors abroad has been slower than expected."

After VPBank sold off a 49 per cent stake in FE Credit, its consumer finance division, to SMBC last year, the institution has become the financial house with the largest charter capital in Vietnam.

While M&As seem to be the shortest path to increasing capital for many banks, there are not many opportunities currently, which also explains why several big banks have chosen to accept weak bank transfers.

Vietcombank, HD Bank, and MB have all been approved by their shareholders to accept weak bank transfers. Management at the banks have asserted that the move will lead to many opportunities for asset and network expansion, and will also bolster credit strength.

At a conference in December, leaders of four state-owned commercial banks urgently proposed for charter capital increases. Vietnamese lenders have actively appealed to their capital sources to boost financial capacity, yet the capital buffer of Vietnamese banks remains thin when compared to other markets in the region.

In addition, while banks in nearby markets have been implementing Basel III standards, at least in part, those in Vietnam have only implemented Basel II. Currently, there are 20 commercial banks in Vietnam that apply Basel II standards, of which 16 have announced the completion of all three pillars. Some banks have started to apply advanced standards and are preparing to apply Basel III standards.

Raising charter capital in the forthcoming time is deemed necessary to help banks develop and expand business operations and increase their resilience in a volatile economy.

Sembcorp keen on renewable energy investment in Vietnam

Singapore’s Sembcorp will step up its investment in renewable energy in Vietnam, with a focus on offshore wind power generation for export to Singapore, heard a meeting today, February 10, between Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and a Sembcorp leader during the former’s visit to Singapore.

Tow Heng Tan, vice chairman of Sembcorp, the investor of the Vietnam-Singapore industrial park (VSIP) projects, said that the group would expand investment in the VSIP projects and cooperate with PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation, a unit of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, to develop an offshore wind power project.

The wind farm is expected to produce electricity for export to Singapore, the local media reported.

PM Chinh praised Sembcorp’s plan, saying Vietnam and Singapore are in talks over a submarine power transmission line across the East Sea. He told Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) to cooperate closely with the Singaporean firm to execute the project effectively.

As for the VSIP projects in Vietnam, the PM said that Sembcorp should collaborate with Vietnamese partners and develop VSIPs in Lang Son and Nghe An provinces, and expand its operations to construct innovation parks in Vietnam.

Vietnam has 12 VSIPs in nine provinces and cities that have attracted some 900 projects with total pledged capital of US$17.6 billion.

In 2021, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Singapore totaled US$8.3 billion and rose to nearly US$9 billion last year.

Singapore is Vietnam’s largest investor in Southeast Asia and ranks second among 141 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

Source: VNA/SGT/VNS/VOV/Dtinews/SGGP/VGP/Hanoitimes