BEIJING: Singapore and China on Monday (Feb 27) have started the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) meeting in Beijing.
The meeting is the highest-level forum between the two countries.
It is co-chaired by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.
At the high-level bilateral platform, ways are discussed to deepen and broaden Singapore and China cooperation. It has been held annually since 2004 except for a hiatus last year.
DPM Teo Chee Hean and Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli co-chair their countries’ first JCBC meeting after a one-year hiatus. (Photo: Jeremy Koh)
Ahead of the meeting, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson had said that China sees Singapore as an important member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and that it wants to further strengthen trust and cooperation with Singapore.
This was a stance echoed by Vice Premier Zhang on Monday when he said that China and Singapore ties have grown from strength to strength.
Besides the JCBC, Mr Teo and Mr Zhang will also co-chair meetings on the three flagship government-to-government (G2G) projects between China and Singapore – the Suzhou Industrial Park, Tianjin Eco-city and Chongqing Connectivity Initiative.
The meeting of the steering council for the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative that aims to turn Chongqing into a logistics and services hub was expected to be the highlight of the day.
It is the first such meeting since the project was launched in November 2015.
