The China New Zealand Partnership has taken it to the next level

release time:2023/4/4

In recent years, practical cooperation between China and Singapore has kept pace with the times, and economic and trade ties have been continuously deepening. Recently, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Prime Minister of Singapore paid an official visit to China. During their visit to China, both China and Singapore issued a joint statement on the establishment of a comprehensive and high-quality forward-looking partnership between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Singapore. The statement states that both sides have unanimously agreed to elevate China Singapore relations into a comprehensive and high-quality forward-looking partnership, planning for the future development of bilateral relations and clarifying strategic directions.
China Singapore has a close trade and investment relationship
Experts generally say that the upgrading of China Singapore relations to "high-quality" means that cooperation in various fields between the two countries will continue to develop towards higher quality. On the other hand, it also has a certain leading and exemplary role in the development of diplomatic relations between China and other countries.
Singapore is an important neighboring country of China. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1990, the foundation of China Singapore relations has been solid, with extensive areas of cooperation and friendly cooperation constantly reaching new levels. "Xu Ningning, Executive Chairman of the China ASEAN Business Council and Chairman of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee, stated in an interview with China Trade Daily that China and Singapore have close trade and investment cooperation relations, and their economic development is mutual assistance and progress.
In the field of trade, China is Singapore's largest trading partner in goods, largest export market, largest source of imports, and third largest trading country in services. Since the the Belt and Road Initiative was put forward in 2013, China has become Singapore's largest trading partner for nine consecutive years. In 2022, the trade volume between China and Singapore reached $115.1 billion, an increase of 22.8% year-on-year. In the field of investment, Singapore has become one of the main destinations for Chinese enterprises to "go global" for trade and investment cooperation. China's new investment focuses on industries such as trade, oil, shipping, and electricity. In 2022, Singapore will rank first among the major non-financial direct investments of Chinese enterprises in countries along the "the Belt and Road". At the same time, Singapore is an important source of foreign investment for China. As of 2022, Singapore's cumulative investment in China reached 72.3 billion US dollars. Singapore has been China's largest source of foreign investment for 9 consecutive years since 2013.
Xu Ningning stated that as a developed country, Singapore regards overseas investment as an important support for the country's economic development due to the limitations of its population and geographical size. Due to its optimistic outlook on China's large market, development potential, and familiarity with Chinese culture and system, it regards China as an important destination for its overseas investment. Recently, a survey of 1600 Singaporean companies showed that over a quarter of them expressed their desire to rely on China's rapidly growing domestic market to promote business development. In addition, Singapore is one of the famous international financial centers, and some European and American multinational corporations have regional headquarters in Singapore. They can use Singapore's convenient financial services to invest in China through Singapore.
In the field of green and digital cooperation, in June 2022, China and Singapore signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Promoting Green Development Cooperation and the Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Digital Economy Cooperation, providing new impetus for the two countries to explore the fields of digital and green economy. In the field of cultural exchange, in January of this year, with the release of the orderly opening of China's entry and exit, multiple provinces, regions, and cities launched tourism promotion activities at the Singapore China Cultural Center. The development interests of Singapore and China are deeply integrated, and the tourism and cultural exchanges between the two peoples are very close, "said Huang Yaoxiong, Chairman of the National Travel Agency Association of Singapore (Outbound).
Substantive completion of subsequent negotiations on upgrading the free trade agreement
Currently, China and Singapore are promoting the further upgrading of the China Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which will provide more business friendly, free, and transparent policies for both countries, and expand trade and investment market access. On April 1st, China and Singapore signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore on announcing the substantive completion of the subsequent negotiations on the upgrade of the China Singapore Free Trade Agreement, confirming the substantive completion of the subsequent negotiations on the upgrade of the two countries' free trade agreement. The teams of both parties will continue their subsequent work such as text legal review and translation, fulfill their respective domestic procedures, and sign the agreement as soon as possible.
Xu Ningning stated that this agreement is the first time China has adopted a negative list model in the practice of free trade agreements to make commitments to service and investment openness. On the basis of the original upgrade agreement, both parties will further enhance their commitment to service trade and investment openness, add new telecommunications chapters, and incorporate high-level economic and trade rules such as national treatment, market access, transparency, and digital economy. Both sides also jointly confirmed that the opening measures in the fields of trade in services and investment will not be withdrawn, and promised to each other through an agreement that the "open doors are getting bigger and bigger". This agreement is an important measure and practical action for China to align with high standard international economic and trade rules and expand its opening up to the outside world, which will effectively promote China Singapore economic and trade cooperation to a new level.
It is reported that in 2008, China and Singapore signed the China Singapore Free Trade Agreement, which is the first bilateral free trade agreement signed between China and ASEAN countries. In 2019, the China Singapore Free Trade Agreement was upgraded. In December 2020, the two sides upgraded the agreement again and initiated subsequent negotiations to further liberalize their service trade and investment based on the negative list model.
Flagship cooperation projects demonstrate their effectiveness
China and Singapore have strong economic and trade complementarity, political and commercial connectivity, and a positive willingness to cooperate. Faced with the new changes in the current international and regional situation, the governments and enterprises of the two countries are leveraging their respective advantages to implement innovative, pragmatic, and mutually beneficial cooperation. "Xu Ningning stated that the bilateral cooperation mechanisms and flagship cooperation projects have demonstrated their effectiveness. There are four new bilateral cooperation mechanisms at the level of Vice Premier in China, including the Joint Committee for Bilateral Cooperation in various fields between the two countries, as well as the Coordination Council for three intergovernmental cooperation projects: Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Ecological City, and (Chongqing) Strategic Interconnection Demonstration Project. Singapore has established economic and trade cooperation mechanisms with seven provinces and cities, including Shandong, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Tianjin, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. In 2019, Singapore established a comprehensive cooperation mechanism with Shanghai and a smart city cooperation mechanism with Shenzhen.
The highlights of cooperation projects between the two countries are numerous. We can develop a cooperation project that reflects the times and meets the needs of society every ten years, "said Li Yixian, Chairman of the Singapore Trade Exchange and Cooperation Promotion Organization" Trade China ".
The Sino Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, Sino Singapore Tianjin Eco City and Sino Singapore (Chongqing) strategic connectivity demonstration projects jointly implemented by China and Singapore are the key platforms for Singapore to participate in the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and the western development. I have witnessed the process of preparation, establishment, and improvement of these three flagship cooperation projects between China and Singapore. These three cooperation projects are a true reflection of the two governments' efforts to continuously elevate economic and trade cooperation to new levels, "said Xu Ningning.
Suzhou Industrial Park is the first intergovernmental cooperation project between China and Singapore. It is reported that at present, Suzhou Industrial Park has formed an industrial system dominated by new generation information technology and high-end equipment manufacturing, and promoted by emerging industries such as biomedicine, nanotechnology application, artificial intelligence and modern service industry. In 2022, the gross domestic product of the park area reached 351.56 billion yuan; As of last year, the park has accumulated approximately 11.4 billion US dollars (15.2 billion Singapore dollars) in actual use of Singapore capital.

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