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S'pore, Vietnam to see more cooperation in coming years: MM Lee
By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 January 2007 2258 hrs

 
 
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Singapore and Vietnam are set to collaborate further in business, and areas of partnerships including service industry and business management.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew made this point at the end of his five-day visit to Vietnam.

It has been nearly 10 years since Mr Lee last set foot in Vietnam and he has noticed the change in the country.

More small enterprises are sprouting up besides foreign ones.

But Mr Lee said, due to poor infrastructure and inadequate education systems, it will take Vietnam another 20 years to catch up with other ASEAN countries.

Nevertheless, Vietnam's economy is likely to grow by at least 8 percent in the next 10 years.

Mr Lee hopes Singapore businesses will tap into its potential.

He said: "I would say we will be selling services, exporting our consumer goods. Our value to them is in our management system. These people will come with ready-made systems of working - their manufacturing plants, management systems, out-sourcing to local industries, how to run the place, how to order the traffic, how you get your hospitals correctly laid out, new hospitals and how you specialise. There are so many areas that we are of value to them.

"Our value now is increasingly in the know-how software, how to do things properly. We should save a lot of troubles for them. It's the same with China, I mean, they are still sending people every month to NTU to attend courses."

And Singapore's Trade and Industry Ministry expects momentum to pick up between the two countries.

MTI says one role Singapore can play is focusing on the capital market, listing them in Singapore's market.

More than 2,500 Vietnamese have been trained in the newly set up Vietnam-Singapore Technical Training Centre.

Singapore has also given out more than 400 scholarships to students in Vietnam, more than half are in university.

Earlier, the Minister Mentor said Singapore can share its experience on education reforms and business management with Vietnam.

Mr Lee said this when he called on two senior officials in Ho Chi Minh city on Friday evening.

Mr Le Thanh Hai, Secretary of the Communist Party in Ho Chi Minh City, told Mr Lee the city carried out reforms in education, including investing in teachers.

Using Singapore as an example, Mr Lee hoped Vietnam could do more to improve teachers' quality such as letting schools go independent to employ teachers and increasing their salaries to attract better teachers.

In his meeting with Madam Pham Phuong Thao, Mr Lee said Ho Chi Minh City is similar to Singapore, and a place where businessmen will have an interest in.

Mr Lee offered to share Singapore's experience in business management, especially after Vietnam's recent entry to the World Trade Organisation.

Asked what advice he had for youths in Vietnam, MM Lee said "study hard, work hard, learn new technologies and they will succeed". - CNA/ch

 

 



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