Singapore has recently come to the fore as an important and potential partner for Vietnam’s tourism, as the country pumped more than US$1 billion into twenty projects throughout Vietnam.

Since the Vietnam-Singapore Tourism Agreement was signed in 1994, bilateral cooperation in tourism between the two countries has flourished considerably, according to a meeting of the Vietnam-Singapore Tourism Cooperation Committee on Wednesday.

So far, Singapore has helped train almost 2,000 managers and officers for Vietnam’s tourist sector. The country also invested US$1.28 billion in 20 tourist projects across Vietnam, heard the meeting.

In 2004, there were almost 51,000 Singaporean visitors traveling to Vietnam, ranking them15th among inbound travel nations, up over one-third over last year.

Vietnam had about 106,000 resident travel to Singapore in 2004, and ranking 16th in Singapore’s tourist market.

Today, beach city Nha Trang in central Khanh Hoa province hosted the 18th session of the Vietnam-Singapore Tourism Cooperation Committee, to discuss ways to further tourist development in the future.