10th China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation Meeting Held in Singapore

2013-10-22 18:00

On Oct. 22, 2013, the 10th China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) Meeting was held in Singapore. Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of the State Council and Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean co-chaired the meeting.

Zhang Gaoli said that over the past year, China-Singapore relationship has seen smooth development, and leaders on both sides have held meetings and talks many times, pointing out clear direction for the development of bilateral relations. This year coincides with the 10th anniversary of the founding of the JCBC, both sides should earnestly implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, and discuss specific path of building an "upgraded version" of the bilateral relations.

Representatives from both sides at the meeting had in-depth discussions about four topics, namely economic transformation, financial services, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and inclusive and sustainable development, and reached broad consensus.

In its statement, the Chinese side pointed out that, in economic transformation, China is willing to further promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade, investment and services on both sides, under the framework of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and to offer assistance for the establishment of the "upgraded version" of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area; give full play to the role of the service trade cooperation facilitation working team that will be set up soon, strengthen cooperation in logistics, tourism, intermediaries, conventions and exhibitions, service outsourcing, statistics, and other fields, and vigorously develop high-end service industry; strengthen the matching of China's regional development and Singapore's participation in China's local development, support Suzhou Industrial Park to go to other provinces in China or other ASEAN countries for investment cooperation; welcome Singapore to participate in the process of the revitalization of old industrial bases in northeast China, and in the West Development; start the plan of building joint labs as soon as possible, establish high-level innovation cooperation mechanism, and promote the exchanges among young scientists from the two countries. In financial cooperation, further broaden the channel for the flow of RMB between China and Singapore; launch direct trade between the RMB and the Singapore dollar in the interbank foreign exchange market; support Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-city to carry out cross-border RMB business innovation; strengthen bilateral cooperation in the banking industry, deepen coordination and cooperation in making international financial supervision rules; strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the development and supervision of the futures and derivatives markets, support bourses of the two countries to strengthen communications; promote Chinese companies to directly get listed in Singapore. In cultural and people-to-people exchange, we propose to strengthen education cooperation, talent and culture exchanges, promote the establishment of "China-Singapore Cooperation Research Center", strengthen exchanges between think tanks on both sides, and continue to consolidate public opinion foundation of bilateral relations. In inclusive and sustainable development, we should strengthen bilateral cooperation in eco-environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction, green buildings, circular economy, and other ecological civilization fields, and establish cooperative mechanism for food safety of both countries; strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation in people's livelihood improvement, public services, social security and other issues.

After the meeting, Zhang Gaoli and Teo Chee Hean attended the signing ceremony for seven cooperative agreements on establishing service trade cooperation facilitation working team, on helping Chinese and Singaporean companies go out into the world, and on promoting bilateral cooperation in agricultural product quality and food safety, in modern service industry of the Suzhou Industrial Park and others.