SM Teo Chee Hean at the Policy Address by Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam

Your Excellency To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam
Excellencies
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

This afternoon, we are honoured to have His Excellency General Secretary To Lam deliver his policy address, here at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. General Secretary Lam is on his first official visit to Singapore as the leader of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Vietnam’s Development

After emerging from decades of conflict, Vietnam's progress over the past four decades has been remarkable. I have witnessed this personally over many visits to Vietnam, the first of which was more than thirty years ago.

Since the launch of Doi Moi reforms in 1986, Vietnam has achieved sustained socio-economic development. GDP growth has averaged over 6% per year. Per capita income has increased 25-fold, and the poverty rate has dropped dramatically from over 70% in the mid-1980s, to less than 5% by 2020.

The immense potential of the Vietnamese people is steadily being realised. Vietnam entered the “High” category of the Human Development Index in 2019. Even 25 years ago, during my early visits to Vietnam, the hunger for education could be felt. Today, Vietnamese students excel in STEM subjects, outperforming many OECD countries in international assessments.

Internationally, Vietnam is a respected member of the global community. It has concluded Strategic Partnerships and Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships with 34 countries, including all five permanent members of the UN Security Council. And it is with great pleasure that Singapore and Vietnam elevated our relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership this morning.

Singapore-Vietnam Relations

In 1993, I had the honour of accompanying Mr Lee Kuan Yew – then Senior Minister – on his first official visit to Vietnam. Mr Lee met then General Secretary Do Muoi, and then Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet. Together, they laid the foundation that continues to guide the strong relations between our two countries.

In the decades since, Singapore and Vietnam have built a relationship characterised by mutual respect and cooperation.

The cornerstone of our bilateral relationship is the very strong trade and investment links. Singapore consistently ranks among Vietnam's top foreign investors. This is testament to the confidence Singapore businesses have in Vietnam's economic potential.

An enduring symbol of the economic partnership between our two countries is the 20 Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIPs) sited across 14 provinces. The VSIPs have created over 320,000 jobs and attracted more than US$23 billion in foreign investment. As the VSIPs approach their 30th anniversary in 2026, they have evolved from traditional industrial zones to integrated smart developments. They now attract high value-added industries, particularly in advanced manufacturing and information technology. It is our hope that the VSIPs will become hubs of technological innovation, which will complement Vietnam's growing capabilities in knowledge-intensive sectors.

Another pillar of our bilateral relationship is the substantial cooperation in human capital development. More than 22,000 Vietnamese officials have participated in Singapore Cooperation Programme courses. This includes 500 a year who attend programmes run by the Vietnam-Singapore Cooperation Centre in Hanoi, which I had the honour of opening in 2019.

Singapore and Vietnam also have strong defence and security relations – the latter benefitting from General Secretary Lam’s leadership while he was the Minister for Public Security – and we have good exchanges also with the Communist Party of Vietnam.

The next stage of Singapore-Vietnam relations involves enhanced cooperation in new and emerging areas. An example is the Singapore-Vietnam Innovation Talent Exchange Programme. This enables 300 Singaporean and Vietnamese professionals in innovation-linked industries to gain work experience in each other’s countries. We are also pursuing new partnerships in areas like the digital economy and renewable energy, where we can work together to address shared developmental challenges.

General Secretary To Lam

Today, we are honoured to host General Secretary To Lam. He joined the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1981, became a member of the Party Central Committee in 2011, and was promoted to the Politburo and the position of Minister of Public Security in 2016. In August 2024, he was elected as the party's General Secretary – the paramount leadership position in Vietnam. I was honoured to be hosted by General Secretary Lam, as the then-Minister of Public Security, when I last visited Vietnam in 2023, on the 50th anniversary of our bilateral relations.

Under General Secretary Lam's leadership, Vietnam is embarking on an ambitious new chapter of development. His vision is to propel Vietnam into a "New Era of Ascendency" through a pragmatic approach that harmonises human ingenuity, science, technology, and digital transformation. This resonates strongly with Singapore's own development journey.

Today, we have the privilege of hearing directly from General Secretary Lam about his forward-looking approach to economic development, and the potential for bilateral cooperation with Singapore.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to invite His Excellency General To Lam to address us. Your Excellency, please.

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