China ready to ‘pursue even more ambitious goals’ with Singapore: Premier Li

BEIJING: Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday (Dec 6) that China “stands ready” to work with Singapore “to pursue even more ambitious goals” after bilateral relations between both countries were upgraded earlier this year.

“We have maintained close exchanges with our Singaporean friends on many occasions, and our cooperation and exchanges across various levels are becoming closer and more efficient," he added.

"All of these demonstrate the strong vitality and great potential of this relationship."

Premier Li was speaking at the start of a bilateral meeting with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Mr Wong, who is also Singapore’s Finance Minister, is on a four-day trip to Beijing and Tianjin that began on Tuesday. It is Mr Wong’s second visit to China this year, having met Premier Li during his last trip to Beijing in May.

Mr Wong also called on Vice Premier He Lifeng, who oversees China’s economic and financial issues, on Wednesday morning.

Following the meetings, Mr Wong said in a post on X – formerly known as Twitter – that he and Premier Li reaffirmed their strong ties and "took stock of the good progress in our collaborations since the upgrade of our bilateral relations".

RELATIONSHIP AT "HIGHER DEVELOPMENT"

Singapore's Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a press release that Mr Wong and Premier Li agreed for both countries to "keep up efforts to advance mutually beneficial cooperation as well as foster closer people-to-people bonds and more business linkages".

They also discussed opportunities for bilateral cooperation on the digital economy, renewable and clean energy, as well as other emerging areas, and exchanged views on regional and global developments.

"Both sides reaffirmed the importance of maintaining an open, inclusive, and rules-based regional architecture," added PMO.

In his remarks, Premier Li welcomed the Singapore delegation who are taking part in events related to the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) – the highest-level annual forum between both countries.

Mr Wong is set to co-chair the 19th JCBC meeting for the first time on Thursday in Tianjin, along with Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang.

The JCBC reviews the substantive collaboration between Singapore and China and charts the direction of cooperation.

Mr Wong will also visit the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, which marks its 15th anniversary this year.

Premier Li noted on Wednesday that the bilateral relationship reached a new level in March when Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Xi Jinping met in Beijing. Ties between the two countries are now at an “All-Round High-Quality Future-Oriented Partnership”.

“That has really brought our bilateral relationship to a higher development in the new era,” said Premier Li in Mandarin.

“China stands ready to work with Singapore to pursue even more ambitious goals in our cooperation in the new era.”

He told Mr Wong that China “attaches high importance” to his visit, and that he and Vice Premier He would be “very happy to have more exchanges” on issues of shared interest.

Mr Wong said there has been a “very good momentum of high-level exchanges” between Singapore and China, including an official visit by China’s Vice President Han Zheng to Singapore last month.

Mr Wong added that he is looking forward to co-chairing the JCBC meeting as well as signing more than 20 memoranda of understanding and agreements on Thursday.

Mr Wong and Vice Premier Ding will also co-chair the 24th China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Steering Council (JSC), the 15th Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City JSC, as well as the 7th China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Cooperation JSC.

These JSCs review the progress of and discuss further cooperation on the three flagship government-to-government projects.

The PMO said that Mr Wong and Vice Premier He “welcomed the positive growth in economic and trade links between Singapore and China”, as well as discussed regional and global economic developments and ways for both economies to remain future-ready.

It added: “They discussed ways to further broaden and deepen the scope of bilateral cooperation, including in the financial sector, such as through initiatives to strengthen market connectivity and linkages.

“This will benefit companies in both countries, strengthen our respective economies, and deepen trade and financial flows between China and Singapore and the wider region.”

Vice Premier He recounted how he was in charge of the development of the Tianjin Eco-City project. He became Tianjin's deputy party secretary in 2009, before being named chairman of the Tianjin People's Political Consultative Conference in 2013.

He also spoke about witnessing the signing of the Belt and Road Cooperation memorandum of understanding between Singapore and China in 2017, along with Mr Wong who was Singapore's Minister of National Development at the time.

“I’m very happy to see you moving up to more important positions,” said the vice premier.

“There have already been some important common understandings reached between the leaders of the two countries, and I think for the next step, what we need to do is to really earnestly follow through on these common understandings, translate them into concrete projects and take further steps, so that they could be delivered on with good effect.”

Mr Wong said he was looking forward to speaking to Vice Premier He on advancing both countries’ economic and financial cooperation.