Myanmar president U Thein Sein's four-day goodwill visit to Singapore, which ended on Wednesday, has opened up a new chapter of bilateral relations, observers here said.

Accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising several ministers, senior officials and business delegates, Thein Sein made the first visit to Singapore since he took office in March 2011.

During the visit, Thein Sein held talks with both Singaporean President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Thein Sein said Singapore is encouraged and supportive of the process of democratic transformation in Myanmar, believing that at this crucial time, the international community should render its support and encouragement to Myanmar's effort to meet its objectives and claimed that a young democratic nation has emerged on this planet.

Thein Sein attributed the emergence of a government based on efforts made over the last two decades, saying the taking of office of the new government on March 30, 2011 has turned a new page in Myanmar.

"We want to give a brighter future for our people. We want our people to take part in the democratic reform process. We want democracy to thrive in Myanmar," he told the Singaporean president.

However, he pointed out that "Democracy has many challenges. Since we are on the right track to democracy, we should overcome these challenges with great care and proceed ahead till we reach our goals."

Tony Tan Keng Yam pledged to assist Myanmar in its capacity building efforts and to continue supporting Myanmar in its transition to democracy.

Noting that Singapore and Myanmar share a common vision of achieving an ASEAN Community in 2015 and Myanmar will assume the ASEAN chairmanship in 2014, he vowed to continue working closely with Myanmar in its ASEAN chairmanship and towards achieving common regional interest for the benefit of regional people.

Thein Sein also held talks with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

During the visit, Myanmar and Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on technical cooperation, under which Singapore will offer its experience in economic development to help Myanmar.

The technical help covers three priority areas including public administration, economic development and human resource development, dealing basically every aspect of economic development, from macroeconomic policy to investment and trade facilitation, as well as central banking and banking supervision.

Under the MoU, Singapore will also offer vocational training to help Myanmar "build up its human resource pool and economic base," with training programs and courses in areas like English language, information technology as well as urban search and rescue.

It will also organize customized study visits for senior officials from Myanmar to observe its systems and policies, including those in public governance and administration, like strategic management and public financial management.

Moreover, Singapore will also help Myanmar prepare for its role as ASEAN chair in 2014 in terms of the protocol and conference work.

While in Singapore, Thein Sein also visited the Housing and Development Board.

Aimed at exploring partnership with Singapore education authorities, Myanmar's Education Minister Dr. Mya Aye toured a number of schools, technical and tertiary education institutions in Singapore, namely Institute of Technical Education College East, Tanjong Katong Secondary School and Nanyang Technological University.

Meanwhile, Singapore bankers will provide technological aid to Myanmar's state and private sector to help accelerate links between Myanmar and international banks in the sectoral development.

International experts from two Singapore-based companies -- United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation will train bank staff from government and private banks in the country and international-recognized certificate will be awarded to them.

In December last year, Singapore Foreign Minister K Shanmugam visited Nay Pyi Taw and handed over tube wells donated to 25 villages of Yangon region's Kawmu township hit by cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

According to official statistics, Myanmar-Singapore bilateral trade reached 2.074 billion U.S. dollars in 2010-11 fiscal year. Of the total, Myanmar's export to Singapore amounted to 446.4 million dollars, while its import from the Southeast Asian member stood at 1.628 billion dollars.

Singapore is now the 6th largest investor of Myanmar after China, Thailand, China's Hong Kong, South Korea and the United Kingdom with over 1.81 billion U.S. dollars being injected into the country as of November 2011 since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in late 1988.