SM Lee to make 5-day visit to China's Guangxi and Shanghai

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong will make a five-day visit to China's Guangxi and Shanghai from Monday (May 18).

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said on Sunday that SM Lee's visit "builds on the momentum of high-level bilateral exchanges between Singapore and China and deepens Singapore's ties with China at the regional level."

In Guangxi, SM Lee will meet and be hosted to dinner by Chen Gang, secretary of the Communist Party of China of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region committee. 

SM Lee will also make site visits to better understand Guangxi's role in advancing Asean-China connectivity as a key gateway for linking China with Southeast Asia.

@asiaone Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong arrived at the Nanning Wuxu International Airport in Guangxi on Monday (May 18) afternoon. He was received by Guangxi vice chairwoman Lu Xinning. SM Lee will also visit Shanghai as part of his five-day visit. #sgnews #singapore #china ♬ original sound - AsiaOne

In an interview with China's People's Daily last December, Singapore's ambassador to China Peter Tan noted that Qinzhou port in Guangxi is an important node on the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, serving as a gateway for Southeast Asian goods transhipped through Singapore into the Chinese market.

Tan also expressed hope for Singapore to work with Guangxi to "further enhance connectivity, improve logistics and unlock new avenues for trade and investments" between them.

In Shanghai, SM Lee will meet and be hosted to dinner by Gong Zheng, mayor of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.

SM Lee will also visit companies to learn about broader technological developments in China. 

The city is home to the Zhangjiang artificial intelligence (AI) island, home to reportedly more than 100 AI companies.

During this visit, SM Lee will be accompanied by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Finance and Manpower Shawn Huang, MP Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar GRC), and officials from PMO, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Digital Development and Information, and the Ministry of Manpower.

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editor@asiaone.com