Zhejiang to strengthen partnership with Singapore
- Details
- Category: Ningbo Business
- Published: Tuesday, 27 November 2012 09:57
The eighth meeting of the Singapore - Zhejiang Economic and Trade Council (SZETC) was held in Ningbo on Nov. 20, and it is learned that Ningbo is hopeful to embrace more commercial opportunities as Zhejiang plans to strengthen its cooperation with Singapore in marine economy, trade and internationalization, environment protection and port logistics as well as other service industries in 2013. Officials attended the meeting included Gong Zheng, a member of the Provincial Standing Committee, and Fu Haiyan, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) of Singapore. The latter is also the second minister of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources and second minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The SZETC was formed in 2003 and has played an important role in promoting the bilateral economic and trade cooperation between Singapore and Zhejiang. Singapore has also become an important trade partner of Ningbo. From Jan. to Aug. in 2012, Ningbo’s imports from Singapore stood at 489 mln US dollars, an increase of 72.2 percent over the same period of the previous year. The cooperation increased significantly as Ningbo held the Singapore-China (Ningbo) Import & Export Fair for four consecutive years since 2009. The fair of this year has attracted over 3,000 Singapore purchasers and businessmen, and made a turnover of 40 mln US dollars.
Gong Zheng and Fu Haiyan, as the representatives of Zhejiang and Singapore respectively, signed the meeting memo. According to the memo, Singapore will organize companies to Ningbo and other coastal cities of Zhejiang to investigate and seek for cooperation, and promote Zhejiang’s companies to set up headquarters or get listed at Singapore Stock Exchange. Moreover, Singapore government should support PSA International Pte Ltd to cooperate with the Port of Ningbo and build berths in Meishan Island jointly, and support CapitalLand Group and Mapletree Group to explore urban complex development projects in Yinzhou and Ningbo’s other districts.
Before the SZETC meeting, Gong Zheng met with the delegation of Singapore government officials and companies’ representatives. Hong Jiaxiang, deputy mayor of Ningbo, Shen Ying, second senior administrative minister of both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Communication and Information of Singapore, and Wang Shouyi, consul-general of Singapore’s Consulate in Shanghai also attended this meeting.
