Deepen China, S'pore cooperation for a better future

Singapore is a special and important neighbour friendly with China. The two countries are near each other geographically, share cultural and blood ties, and have common interests and long-standing bilateral ties.

Every Chinese visitor to Singapore is deeply impressed by its garden city, vibrant development and social order.

The Chinese government places great emphasis on developing friendly ties with Singapore. Leaders have maintained close contact and built good working and personal relationships since the exchanges between Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Deng Xiaoping in the 1970s. Both sides have linked development strategy to the bilateral relationship to pave the way for cooperation in which we learn from each other and which is mutually beneficial.

In the 23 years since diplomatic ties were established, bilateral relations have developed rapidly, cooperation has continued to rise to new heights and shared interests have deepened increasingly.

Bilateral trade has grown 24-fold from US$2.8 billion to US$69.3 billion (S$85.9 billion). Visitor exchanges have increased 22-fold from 95,000 to 2.2 million. The number of joint projects is on the rise. The Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-City are role models, followed by the Guangzhou Knowledge City, Sichuan-Singapore Hi-tech Innovation Park and Jilin Food Zone. Like a tree with luxuriant foliage, our cooperation has borne fruits that benefit people from the two countries.

Bilateral ties are at a new starting point in history. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently visited China, and met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. They reached a consensus on deepening cooperation in the new era, setting the direction for promoting bilateral relations.

China has attracted attention worldwide with its achievements in modernisation over 35 years of reform and opening up. With confidence, the Chinese are striving towards realising the China dream of a moderately well-off society and the Chinese renaissance.

China will persevere with deepening its reform and opening up. We will expand the market economy further and let society have more say. We will ease corporate controls, step up our efforts towards a fair and transparent market as well as promote fair competition and survival of the fittest for a vibrant market. We will be more active in opening up and learn from all aspects of human civilisation so that our opening up can be comprehensive in depth and scope.

China will step up the pace of transforming its economy for sustainable and healthy growth. Development remains the key to solving China's problems, but we will no longer focus simply on gross domestic product growth. While maintaining a reasonable pace, we will also try to raise the quality and efficacy of our growth. In order to speed up transformation of the economy from "made in China" to "created by China", we will upgrade our industries, resolve over-capacity and strengthen innovation.

We will coordinate development in various parts of the country, with special focus on the central and western areas. We will make full use of urbanisation to expand domestic demand, promote development and improve the people's livelihood, thereby creating a new engine of economic growth.

China is committed to building an eco-civilisation based on green, low-carbon development and recycling. We want our environment intact even as we pursue wealth. We will get tough on acute environmental issues and through perseverance increase the pace of building a beautiful China with blue sky, green earth and clean water.

China's huge growth potential and bright outlook will offer more opportunities and room for development for countries including Singapore. Singapore is one of the first countries to participate in China's opening up. It has advanced management experience, a developed service sector and is an important international financial hub. All these meet the demands of China's economic transformation, giving Singapore an obvious edge in China's external cooperation.

We are willing to work with Singapore to realise the consensus of promoting stable, deep and pragmatic cooperation reached by our leaders:

- Continue to improve the cooperation mechanism and maintain its stability, continuity and openness. Ensure proper macro-planning in developing cooperation. Deepen cooperation in key areas and iconic projects as models of development.

- Strive to expand areas of cooperation. Strengthen pragmatic cooperation in areas such as trade, finance, technology, humanities, ecology building and social management. Support Singapore's participation in developing China's western and north-eastern parts as new highlights in cooperation.

- Work together to promote regional cooperation. Focus on promoting an Asian infrastructure investment bank, a stable currency, credit system, investment and financing cooperation system and the 21st century maritime Silk Road for early establishment of a comprehensive economic partnership in the region.

"The horizon widens amid a calm river, the sail catches the wind." A rare opportune moment beckons China and Singapore in their pragmatic cooperation. Let us forge ahead and cooperate in good faith for a better future for bilateral ties.

The writer is China Vice-Premier

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