PM Wong to make introductory visit to Hanoi on Mar 25 and 26
His trip comes soon after Singapore and Vietnam upgraded relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
[SINGAPORE] Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will make his introductory visit to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi from Tuesday (Mar 25) to Wednesday, at the invitation of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
This comes after Vietnam’s top leader To Lam made an official visit to Singapore earlier this month, during which the two South-east Asian countries upgraded bilateral relations to the highest tier of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
During his visit to Hanoi, PM Wong will meet with the country’s “four pillars”. Chinh will first host him at an official dinner on Tuesday. The two leaders, who will meet again in Hanoi, previously met at regional and international events such as last year’s Asean Summit in Laos and the G-20 Summit in Brazil.
PM Wong is also scheduled to meet National Assembly of Vietnam chairman Tran Thanh Man, and call on President Luong Cuong and Lam, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
PM Wong has also previously met Man, when he visited Singapore at the invitation of Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng last December. This will be PM Wong’s first meeting with Cuong.
This trip is the sixth of PM Wong’s series of introductory visits to South-east Asian nations since he was sworn in last May. He has already travelled to Brunei, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia and Thailand.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Friday, 8.30 am
Asean Business
Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies.
Among those in PM Wong’s delegation in Hanoi are Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Manpower Minister and Second Trade and Industry Minister Tan See Leng, Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health Rahayu Mahzam, and senior government officials.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong will be the acting prime minister while PM Wong is overseas.
Advancing cooperation
On the economic front, bilateral trade between Singapore and Vietnam has grown steadily over the past decade, with bilateral trade in goods reaching S$31.6 billion in 2024.
As at December last year, Singapore was Vietnam’s second-largest foreign investor by cumulative investments. It was also the largest foreign direct investor of Vietnam, with such investments at US$10.2 billion.
The two countries are also collaborating in forward-looking areas such as the green and digital economy. Such bilateral cooperation can help to lay the foundations for regional initiatives, including the Asean Power Grid and the Asean Digital Economy Framework Agreement, which would strengthen the region’s economic resilience and energy security as a whole.
The Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks are a key pillar of economic engagement. There are now 20 of such parks, across 14 provinces in northern, central and southern Vietnam. These have helped to create close to 320,000 jobs and attracted more than US$23 billion of foreign investment to Vietnam.
Training is another pillar in the two countries’ collaboration. Through the Singapore Cooperation Programme, more than 22,000 Vietnamese officials have attended courses on topics such as economic development and trade, public administration, governance and law.
A Vietnam-Singapore cooperation centre in Hanoi offers capacity-building courses, and Singapore’s foreign affairs ministry has hosted senior officials on 20 study visits since 2011 – with the most recent one occurring in February 2025.
The countries also have strong cultural links and people-to-people ties.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
