Singapore UOB to boost high-tech FDI into Vietnam

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) will boost high-quality foreign direct investments (FDI) into Ho Chi Minh City, especially in high technology, digital technology, green growth, sustainability, infrastructure, and renewables.

UOB and HCMC’s Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) signed an MoU for the move in the southern economic hub of Vietnam on Tuesday.

The signing ceremony was part of a working session between UOB and HCMC authorities, a day after UOB CEO and deputy chairman Wee Ee Chong had a meeting with Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man in Singapore.

The two sides will also collaborate in helping Vietnamese firms join the supply chains of FDI businesses, which are also partners of UOB.

They agreed to hold conferences to promote investments and have regular and irregular meetings to help investors.

Speaking at the event, HCMC Chairman Phan Van Mai pledged the city will improve the administrative procedures, investment environment, and digitalization process to facilitate investments.

He noted HCMC seeks to learn from international experiences to attract more Singaporean investors.

For his part, UOB Vietnam CEO Victor Ngo said the MoU can help attract giant businesses to invest more in HCMC and the southern region of Vietnam.

In the last five years, UOB has facilitated over 300 foreign businesses to invest in Vietnam, with total investment of SGD8 billion ($6 billion) and creation of 50,000 jobs.

In July 2023, the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment and UOB signed an MoU to further facilitate FDI flows into Vietnam. This is an elevation of the first MoU signed by the two sides in 2015. The first MoU facilitated investments of SGD$4.3 billion in Vietnam.