Singaporean Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his wife began a five-day visit to Vietnam on January 16 at the invitation of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
As a Senior Minister, Lee Kuan Yew visited Vietnam four times, in 1992, 1993, 1995 and 1997. During these visits, he contributed many opinions to Vietnam’s economic development process.
Lee Kuan Yew, who is Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s father, was appointed as Singaporean Prime Minister from 1959-1990.
The Singaporean Senior Minister’s visit to Vietnam takes place at a time when friendship and multilateral co-operation between the two countries have achieved remarkable results. Both sides have exchanged high-ranking delegations and signed many important co-operative documents. The two-way trade reached US$6.4 billion in 2005 and over US$7 billion in the following year. By November 2006, Singaporean investors had poured US$48.1 billion into projects in Vietnam, ranking second among 76 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.
Vietnam and Singapore are actively implementing a framework agreement on connecting six co-operative areas, including investment, finance-banking, trade-service, transportation, education-training, and post-telecommunications.
