Beijing seeks to replicate success of S'pore-China JVs

pub_date:Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-City are among those held up as examplesEVEN as Singapore looks at deepening its collaboration with the far-flung areas of China, the new Chinese leadership is keen to replicate the success of existing bilateral projects across the rest of the mainland, President Xi Jinping told Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.自存倉Mr Lee met both Mr Xi and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing yesterday, at the start of a week-long official visit to China. It was his first meeting with them in their current leadership positions.In Mr Lee's meeting with Mr Xi, Singapore's flagship joint ventures - the Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-City - were among those held up as examples of what the Chinese government is keen to reproduce, as part of a cooperation between the two countries that is slated to be both broader and wider under the new Chinese leadership.Referring to Suzhou Industrial Park - which broke ground in 1994 - in his meeting with Mr Li, Mr Lee said: "We're happy as proud parents to report that the park has matured from operating and hosting basic industries and foreign investments to new high-tech industries."Speaking to the media yesterday, Mr Lee also noted that the Chinese were keen to review and improve their Asean-China free trade agreement, and that Singapore will do its bit to help encourage cooperation between both entities."We support that and I told them that we will do our part in Singapore, one small country in Asean, to help foster cooperation between China and Asean," Mr Lee said."And Asean sees this against its context of cooperation with many countries in the world, developing an open region but in that overall world-view, China plays a very important role. And we hope that this relationship can develop and prosper."Singapore's own relationship with China has made significant progress at national and pro迷你倉新蒲崗incial levels, according to Mr Lee."We're going into new areas, financial sectors where we've got the Chinese banks in Singapore doing renminbi clearing. We're talking about social management - we've had a seminar with them last year . . . the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) has a clear mandate to work not just on existing areas but also new areas of cooperation," Mr Lee said.Last year, bilateral trade between Singapore and China stood at S$103.8 billion, an increase of 2.4 per cent year on year. Imports grew 2.5 per cent to S$48.9 billion, while exports rose 2.3 per cent to S$54.9 billion.During the meeting with Mr Lee yesterday, Mr Xi noted that Singapore is the only Asean country to have signed a free trade agreement with China. "The size of our bilateral currency swap is the largest between China and Asean countries," Mr Xi added.Last night, Mr Lee left Beijing for the western Xinjiang autonomous region where he will visit the cities of Urumqi, Shihezi and Kashgar. "In Xinjiang, it's a first time for me. I hope to understand the conditions in a very different part of China from the coastal areas which I'm more familiar with," Mr Lee told Mr Xi.After visiting Xinjiang, Mr Lee will head east to Shenyang, which he visited in 2005. "I hope to see the changes that have taken place since then, as well as the contrast, of course, with Xinjiang," Mr Lee added.The Prime Minister also alluded to China's territorial disputes involving islands in the South China Sea yesterday, urging "moderation and restraint" for all countries.In his meeting with Mr Lee, Mr Xi said, "China is committed to pursuing peaceful development and will continue the foreign policy of building good neighbouring relationships and partnerships with surrounding countries. China will continue to attach high importance to growing its friendly relations and cooperation with Singapore."迷你倉出租