China, Singapore enjoy good momentum in development of bilateral relations

SINGAPORE -- This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Singapore. Under the guidance of the leadership from both sides, the two countries have witnessed good momentum in the development of bilateral ties with pragmatic cooperation in all sectors.

LOGISTIC, FINANCIAL CONNECTIVITY

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore under the framework of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, or Chongqing Connectivity Initiative (CCI).

The corridor serves as a bridge between the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and helps enhance connectivity between Western China, Southeast Asia and the rest of the world.

As part of the corridor, the land-sea freight route had linked 234 ports in 92 countries and regions as of June 30 this year, according to sources with the route's operation platform.

The platform also showed that 386 trips were made along the route in the first half of 2020, while the route had seen a total of 1,966 trips from its official opening in September 2017 to June 30 this year.

Goods transported along the route covered more than 350 categories including automobiles and auto parts, chemical raw materials and products, light industry and pharmaceutical products and fresh and frozen goods, according to the platform.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Singapore must strengthen connectivity with the region and the world to facilitate the movement of goods, data and people, said Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in the FutureChina Global Forum last month.

Singapore is pressing ahead with China with the corridor. "We saw a 20 percent increase in trade volume in the first half of this year, despite COVID-19, through this corridor," Heng said at the forum.

China has been Singapore's largest trading partner and Singapore has been China's largest foreign investor since 2013, said Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday in an exchange of congratulatory message to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Actually Singapore state-backed investor Temasek saw its holdings in China surpassed its home market of Singapore for the first time in the financial year ending on March 31. Its exposure to China rose to 29 percent of assets, compared with 24 percent for Singapore, according to the Temasek Review 2020 released last month.