China, Singapore agree to strengthen design of bilateral cooperation

SINGAPORE, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang on Monday met with Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, and they agreed to strengthen the planning and design of bilateral cooperation in an all-round, high-quality and forward-looking manner.

Ding, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said when meeting with Gan that bilateral cooperation has produced new fruitful results in the past year and the two sides should make good use of the various platforms of bilateral cooperation mechanisms and continue to work together to push forward bilateral cooperation.

Gan said that the bilateral cooperation mechanism has continuously injected new impetus into the prosperity and development of the two countries. Singapore attaches great importance to the building of bilateral cooperation mechanisms and is willing to keep close high-level exchanges with China, strengthen mutual learning on governance, enhance people-to-people exchanges, expand cooperation in emerging areas and push for greater development of bilateral relations.

The two officials co-chaired four meetings of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the 20th meeting of the China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation, the 25th meeting of the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Steering Council (JSC), the 16th meeting of the China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City JSC, and the eighth meeting of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity JSC.

The two sides comprehensively reviewed the progress of China-Singapore practical cooperation and fully recognized the achievements of the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, the China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, and the Guangzhou Knowledge City.

They had in-depth exchanges on the cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), economy and trade, sustainable development, innovation, finance, public health, people-to-people exchanges, and bilateral national-level projects, and jointly explored new ideas and measures for cooperation.

The two sides agreed to continue to deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen and implement major cooperation projects, strengthen the construction of new land-sea corridors, continue to expand cooperation in new areas with a focus on digitalization and greenization, and push for new achievements in people-to-people exchanges and cultural cooperation, so as to better benefit the two countries and their people.

They also witnessed 25 achievements of China-Singapore cooperation, including the signing of a Belt and Road cooperation plan, agreeing on the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (CSFTA) Further Upgrade Protocol (FUP) to enter into force on Dec. 31 this year, and the renewal of the framework agreement on the exchange and training program for middle and high-ranking officials.