Your Excellency Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills),

Mr. Robert Ng, Chairman of Sino Group,

Presidents and Representatives of Chinese and Singaporean Universities,

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning!

It gives me great pleasure to join you and witness the signing of 3 MOUs between our universities.

First of all, I would like to extend, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy, our warmest congratulations on the agreements reached between Peking University and Nanyang Technological University, Tsinghua University and National University of Singapore, and Zhejiang University and Singapore University of Technology and Design.

I also want to thank the Ministry of Education in Singapore, Sino Group, the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Singaporean Universities on your dedicated efforts and detailed arrangements for today's event.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded a successful state visit to Singapore and pushed the celebration of our 25 years of diplomatic ties to a climax.

The visit is marked by fruitful outcomes and historic significance.

For the very first time, we give a clear definition to our bilateral relationship, which is "All-round Cooperative Partnership Progressing with the Times".

We launched the third Government-to-Government project that covers the whole western region of China, initiated the upgrading of China-Singapore FTA and signed the MOU on exchanges and cooperation in terms of education.

The state visit has unveiled a new chapter of our bilateral relations and injected new energy in our practical cooperation, in particular the education cooperation.

China-Singapore education cooperation has come a long way over the years. It has been an important engine driving up our people-to-people exchanges and the overall bilateral relationship.

Not long ago, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC National Congress, or the Fifth Plenum, emphasized that China needs innovative, coordinated, green, open and inclusive development. It stressed that innovation is the primary driving force of growth and education is the top priority of national development. I believe all these means important opportunities for our education cooperation, especially the ones between our universities.

I am convinced that with the signing of today's MOUs, our higher education cooperation will be further strengthened, and it will also give a strong boost to our bilateral relations in general.

China-Singapore education cooperation will not achieve that much without helps from all across the society. And today, we must give our special thanks to Sino Group and the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation for their gracious donation in funding the collaboration between the 6 universities of China and Singapore.

Sino Group has long been dedicated to promoting social welfare and education. In 2010, the Group set up the Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and has made huge amount of donations on education and public interests, and it is truly admirable. Today, on behalf of Chinese universities, faculty members and students who will benefit enormously from your help, I want to once again express our sincere thanks.

To conclude, I wish the complete success of the ceremony and greater achievements of China-Singapore education cooperation.

Thank you!