Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli Visits Singapore and Co-Chairs the Meetings of the Three China-Singapore High-Level Cooperative Mechanisms with Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean

2013-10-22 18:00

From October 21 to 22, 2013, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of the State Council, who was invited to visit Singapore, respectively met with Singaporean President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Zhang Gaoli and Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean co-chaired the 10th China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation Meeting, the 15th China-Singapore SIP Joint Steering Council Meeting, and the 6th China-Singapore Joint Steering Council Meeting for Tianjin Eco-city.

During the meetings with President Tony Tan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Zhang Gaoli first conveyed the cordial greetings from President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to them. Tony Tan and Lee Hsien Loong extended their appreciation and their best wishes to the Chinese leaders.

Zhang Gaoli said that China and Singapore have a long and special relationship of friendly cooperation. The new central collective leadership of China will, as always, attach great importance to developing China-Singapore relations. China is willing to cooperate sincerely with Singapore to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders on the development of bilateral relations in the new era. China is willing to maintain the all-round cooperation with Singapore, give play to the exemplary role of key projects, make bilateral cooperation more forward-looking, and enable China-Singapore relations to achieve greater development at a new historical starting point.

Zhang Gaoli said China and Singapore are both going through a process of economic transformation and upgrading. China is striving to integrate economic restructuring, innovation-driven development and environmental protection. It is hoped that the two sides will link China's efforts to drive the coordinated and balanced regional development with Singapore's efforts to participate in China's local development. China welcomes the Singaporean side to actively participate in China's western development strategy as well as the process of revitalizing the old industrial bases in northeast China.

Zhang Gaoli said that Singapore is an important member state of ASEAN. China appreciates the efforts made by Singapore to promote the development of relations between China and ASEAN states. China is willing to further strengthen coordination and cooperation and work together with Singapore to build a China-ASEAN community of common destiny, promote the implementation of China-ASEAN cooperation framework agreement, and provide more positive energy for the prosperity and stability in the region. The two sides should enhance cooperation in such areas as building an upgraded version of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, building a regional financial security network, accelerating the development of connected infrastructure of surrounding countries, and promoting regional economic integration, and keep making substantial progress.

Tony Tan said that Singapore-China relationship is very mature, and the people of the two countries understand each other. The joint cooperative projects have closely bonded the two countries together. The two sides have not only carried out productive cooperation in the field of economic and trade cooperation, but also created new cooperation highlights in social management, financial cooperation and other areas. Singapore is willing to work with China to explore more avenues of cooperation and do its best to contribute to the development of China.

Lee Hsien Loong said that his recent visit to China achieved a great success and his visit to Xinjiang and the northeastern region of China was rewarding. Singapore wishes to see that China continues to push forward reform and opening up. China's continued stability and development is in line with the interests of Singapore and Singapore will continue to actively participate in China's development and construction. He was very pleased to see that the meetings of the three cooperative mechanisms achieved important results. The two sides should work together to make full use of the existing mechanisms to deepen the existing cooperation and explore new areas of cooperation.

On the 22nd, Zhang Gaoli and Teo Chee Hean co-chaired the meetings of the three high-level mechanisms for bilateral cooperation. The two sides summed up the progress of cooperation in all fields, conducted in-depth discussions on cooperation in such areas as economic restructuring, financial cooperation, cultural exchanges, inclusive and sustainable development, and reached broad consensus. The two sides agreed to comprehensively push the transformation and upgrading of Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) based on the concept of modern service industry and innovation on science and technology and supported the park to carry out investment cooperation in other parts of China and other ASEAN countries. The meeting adopted a report on the five-year development vision of Tianjin Eco-City and proposed to build the eco-city into a resource-saving and environment-friendly green town and provide replicable and extendable experience for China's urbanization and sustainable development. The two sides also discussed Singapore's participation in China's local development.

After the meetings, Zhang Gaoli and Teo Chee Hean attended the signing ceremony of seven cooperation documents including establishing a working group for the promotion of service and trade cooperation, encouraging Chinese and Singaporean companies to jointly go overseas, and increasing cooperation in the fields of quality of agricultural products and grain security.

During his visit to Singapore, Zhang Gaoli also met with Singapore's Emeritus Senior Minister (ESM) Goh Chok Tong. He and Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam jointly attended the China-Singapore financial luncheon.