‘Many possibilities’: Singapore, Shanghai eye closer cooperation as leaders meet
A troubled international environment means like-minded partners must work harder to find ways to cooperate, said Singapore Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a meeting with Shanghai party chief Chen Jining on Thursday (Nov 28).
Singapore Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets Shanghai party secretary Chen Jining on Nov 28, 2024. (Photo: Ministry of Digital Development and Information)
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SHANGHAI: There is scope for Singapore and Shanghai to do more together and eke out greater gains for bilateral relations, as well as the larger Sino-Singapore relationship, their leaders agreed on Thursday (Nov 28).
“We see many possibilities for doing more things together,” said Singapore Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a late morning meeting with Shanghai party chief Chen Jining at the Grand Halls complex in the heart of the Chinese financial hub. Mr Lee is on a six-day official visit to China.
“The international environment is troubled, but that simply means that between like-minded partners, we have to work harder to find opportunities to cooperate and make win-win arrangements come to life,” said Mr Lee, echoing his remarks on Tuesday when he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
In his remarks, Mr Chen described Mr Lee as a “long-time friend” of the Chinese people, committed to fostering friendly bilateral cooperation over the years.
The Shanghai party boss noted how Shanghai plays a “key role” in China-Singapore cooperation. He pointed out the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2019 that aimed to deepen cooperation in areas like financial services, technology and innovation, urban governance and people-to-people exchanges.
“Over the past five years, collaboration between Shanghai and Singapore has yielded fruitful results, with bilateral trade increasing by 20 per cent,” noted Mr Chen, who is an environmental scientist and holds a PhD from Imperial College London in civil and environmental engineering.
“As a local government, Shanghai is committed to making even greater contributions to the development of our bilateral relationship.”
As of June 2023, Singapore was Shanghai’s largest foreign investor. Cumulative actual investments reached US$25.99 billion in the first half of 2024. As of end-2022, Shanghai was also Singapore’s second-largest investment destination in China, behind Jiangsu province.
Mr Lee remarked how he has visited Shanghai many times over the past 30-plus years. “And each time I have come back, I have been very happy to see the city prospering, developing, vibrant with new industries and new ideas and new possibilities,” he said.
“BRIDGE CONNECTING SINGAPORE AND SHANGHAI”
The senior minister noted the sizeable community of Singaporeans living and working in and around Shanghai, as well as the presence of Singaporean companies and firms with Singapore connections who use Shanghai as a base for their Chinese operations.
“They are the bridge connecting Singapore and Shanghai. And also they are ambassadors representing Singapore and helping Shanghai people to know Singapore better and to want to do more with Singapore,” said Mr Lee.
The senior minister met Singapore business leaders in Shanghai earlier on Thursday.
Investments from Singapore to Shanghai are largely concentrated in the real estate, financial services, manufacturing, lifestyle and consumer sectors. Prominent Singapore companies which have invested in Shanghai include CapitaLand, Keppel, and DBS.
Mr Lee is set to meet overseas Singaporeans in Shanghai on Thursday evening. He wraps up his trip to China on Friday.
