CHINA - China and Singapore should seize the opportunity to boost cooperation
in areas such as emerging industries and innovation management, Vice-Premier Li
Keqiang said on Friday.
Li made the remarks at a meeting
with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who concluded a six-day visit
to China on Friday.
China is willing to enhance
political mutual trust with Singapore, in order to understand and respect each
other's core interests and major concerns, and strengthen communication and
coordination on important international and regional issues, Li said.
He also called for more pragmatic
local cooperation between Singapore and China, especially with China's Midwest
and Northeast regions.
The two sides signed two
cooperation agreements between Singapore and China's Northeastern Jilin
province on Thursday.
Noting that Singapore has always
viewed China's development as an opportunity to develop itself and the region,
Lee said that Singapore hopes that China succeeds and wants to share the
dividends of China's continuous prosperity.
Lee also said Singapore is
willing to explore more ways to cooperate with China.
"China's growth story is
impressive and has benefited the entire region, overshadowing the recent
friction created by the South China Sea issue," said Satish Bakhda, Head
of Operations at Rikvin, a major employment agency in Singapore.
"The Singapore government,
with all its ASEAN partners, is working overtime to resolve these issues, to
get our growth story back on track, which is a good sign," Bakhda said.
Political trust between China and
Singapore, which is a major member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, will help to reduce the doubts of other ASEAN members about China and
ease tensions in the South China Sea, said a commentary on the website of the
China Review News Agency based in Hong Kong.
The ASEAN should adopt a
"neutral and forward-looking" position on South China Sea disputes
and encourage parties involved to solve the issue through peaceful means, Lee
said on Thursday when addressing senior officials at the Party School of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
"First, it's in Singapore's
interests to see international disputes settled in accordance with
international laws and in particular, the United Nations Convention on the Law
of the Sea. Second, navigational freedom is another fundamental interest since
trade and waterways are a lifeline for Singapore."
Lee began his third visit to
China since taking office in 2004 in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on Sunday
afternoon, and continued to Tianjin.
Trade between Singapore and China
surged after the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1990. Singapore is China's
third-largest trading partner among ASEAN member states. Trade in 2011 reached
US$63.48 billion (S$78.5 billion), up 11.2 per cent.
The Singapore-Sichuan High-tech
Innovation Park, Tianjin Eco-city, Suzhou Industrial Park and the Raffles City
mixed development project by CapitaLand in Sichuan province are some of the
recent flagship projects.
Also, a giant panda couple, Kai
Kai and Jia Jia, arrived in Singapore on Thursday on a 10-year loan.
China Daily/Asia News Network
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