The 15th China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation Meeting, the 20th China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Steering Council Meeting, the 11th China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Joint Steering Council Meeting and the Third China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity Joint Steering Council Meeting was held in Chongqing, a municipality in Southwest China, on Oct 15. Han Zheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council of China, and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat of the Republic of Singapore co-chaired the event. 

 

At the 20th China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Steering Council Meeting, Han Zheng encouraged SIP to quicken pace in building a world-class high-tech park and a highland for all-around opening-up, internationalized innovation, high-end industries and modern governance.

 

Heng Swee Keat said Singapore expects to strengthen cooperation with China in the development of SIP, and will offer support for it to further take part in the implementation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Yangtze River Delta integration strategy. He hopes SIP can achieve better development in the future based on the China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone Suzhou Area newly established in it.

Guo Yuanqiang, vice governor of Jiangsu province, spoke at the event and unveiled a series of plans designed to drive more prosperous development of SIP. Suzhou mayor Li Yaping, Jiangsu Foreign Affairs Office director Fei Shaoyun and SIP Administrative Committee director Ding Lixin were present.

At the event, the Chinese and Singaporean parties agreed to lay the emphasis of next-step cooperation on the construction of the new free trade zone in SIP.

 

After the meeting, SIP Administrative Committee and Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) International signed a MOU for future cooperation.