Singapore and China agreed to new areas of economic cooperation during the successful inaugural Singapore-China Joint Investment Promotion Committee (IPC) meeting held in Beijing today. The meeting was co-chaired by Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang and PRC Vice Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong.

The meeting was a substantive and fruitful one, and discussed a wide range of topics – from emerging sectors, to new growth regions for future economic collaboration to clarification of key investment guidelines. The fruitful discussions set the stage for the IPC to be an important platform to strengthen investment flows between Singapore and China in the future. The key highlights are as follow:

(i)Helping Chinese Companies ‘Go Global’ 

Singapore and China agreed to work closely to help Chinese companies “go global” by encouraging more of them to leverage on Singapore’s strengths and set up their regional hub and list in Singapore. Both countries also agreed to collaborate to assist Chinese companies to venture out to third country markets by jointly organizing investment seminars and business missions. 

(ii)Facilitating Singapore Investments in Priority Sectors 

Singapore and China will also work closely to facilitate more Singapore investments into the priority sectors of water & environmental engineering, healthcare, education and insurance in China. Not only will this yield more commercial opportunities for companies in both countries, active collaboration in these knowledge-intensive and high value-added sectors will help enhance the capabilities of both economies in the longer run. 

(iii)Closer economic cooperation in New Growth Regions 

Both countries agreed to explore closer economic cooperation in the new growth regions around the Bohai Rim such as Tianjin and Liaoning. To facilitate more business projects between Singapore and Tianjin, the Singapore-Tianjin Economic and Trade Council (STETC), the fifth bilateral business council[1] between Singapore and China, was also officially launched today. Both countries had earlier agreed to establish the STETC at the third Singapore-China Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation meeting on 25 August 2006. Forging direct linkages with Tianjin through the STETC will enable Singapore to continue playing an integral role in China’s developmental strategy, particularly in the revitalization of the Northeast region. 

Commenting on the meeting, Minister Lim noted, “We covered a very substantive agenda today. This marks a strong start for the IPC as an important platform where Singapore and China can discuss forward-looking ideas that will create mutual benefits and foster more economic cooperation between our two countries.”

After the meeting, Minister Lim and Vice Minister Ma also witnessed the official launch of three handbooks from the “Singapore Trade and Investment” series which will cover useful topics on public listing, business laws and regulations as well as other key pointers on doing business in Singapore. These volumes will be distributed to government officials and Chinese enterprises to help them better understand the process of establishing business operations in Singapore

The success of the IPC meeting underlines the close economic relations between Singapore and China and we look forward to further deepening our economic engagement.

MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY, SINGAPORE
25 January 2007