Vietnamese Party chief, State President To Lam visits tech, rail test facilities in Singapore

The Vietnamese leader, his spouse Ngo Phuong Ly, and the high-level Vietnamese delegation arrived in Singapore early on Friday, marking the start of a state visit to the city-state through Sunday at the invitation of Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his spouse.

The A*STAR Model Factory is one of Singapore’s flagship research and application facilities for smart industry, innovation and digital transformation in production.

It serves as a learning and testing environment where firms, research institutions and agencies can directly experience, evaluate and implement advanced manufacturing solutions, particularly Industry 4.0 technologies, including autonomous robots and intelligent manufacturing management systems, before deploying them on a commercial scale.

The approach helps reduce investment risks by allowing enterprises to ‘test before adoption,’ with partial government support for trial activities.

After receiving an overview of the facility and exploring its operations, Party chief and State President Lam expressed his appreciation for Singapore’s efforts to create an environment where companies can experiment with new technologies before making major investments.

He described the model as a highly practical development-oriented approach in which the State shares initial risks, enterprises are encouraged to innovate boldly, and scientists work closely with production and productivity demands.

This is also the direction Vietnam is pursuing in its science and technology policies, he said.

If Vietnam chooses only safety, there will be no breakthroughs.

As such, the nation is working to establish mechanisms that allow for reasonable risk-taking in research and encourage the testing of new technologies, said the Vietnamese leader.

He reaffirmed that science, technology, innovation and digital transformation have been identified as strategic drivers of rapid and sustainable development.

Vietnam is accelerating institutional reforms, developing a highly skilled workforce and strengthening national technological capabilities to deepen its participation in global value chains.

With ambitions to build a knowledge-based economy driven by technology and innovation, Vietnam views investment in science, human capital and advanced manufacturing capabilities as essential for long-term growth.

The Vietnamese leader also highlighted Vietnam’s desire to establish practical technology centers where firms can access expert support, test new manufacturing processes and train workers in real-world environments.

He noted that such facilities would be particularly important for supporting industries, semiconductors and other high-tech sectors.

He emphasized that Singapore remains an important partner with valuable experience and expressed confidence that bilateral cooperation in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, smart manufacturing, innovation and high-tech workforce development would continue to expand in the years ahead.

Learning from Singapore’s urban rail test model

At the Singapore Rail Test Center, he described the facility as a valuable reference model for Vietnam as several metro lines are entering or preparing for commercial operation.

He noted that Vietnam could learn from Singapore’s approach to training engineers capable of independently assembling, inspecting and overhauling core railway technologies, as well as its application of digital technologies in maintenance processes to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

The center is a large-scale engineering complex responsible for daily inspections, scheduled maintenance and heavy overhauls of trains, signaling systems and critical components such as braking systems, motors and air-conditioning units.

The facility also supports testing for new metro trains, signaling systems, automated control technologies, operational safety solutions and technical upgrades for existing rail networks.

In the past, most testing activities for Singapore’s metro system had to be conducted at night on active rail lines, limiting testing time and affecting maintenance schedules.

The opening of the center enables continuous trials in a separate environment without disrupting the commercial operation of the metro network.

On the same day, Party chief and State President Lam joined Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in a tree-planting ceremony at the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

The Vietnamese leader, his spouse, and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation laid flowers in tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at the statue and memorial plaque dedicated to him within the campus of the Asian Civilizations Museum.