On November 7, 2015, when President Xi Jinping visited Singapore, leaders of the two countries announced to officially start the 3rd China-Singapore inter-governmental project cooperation, facing western China. Chinese state counselor Yang Jiechi and the Vice-Premier of Singapore Teo Chee Hean, the Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng and the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore Chan Chun Sing signed the framework agreement and the supplemental agreement of constructing this project, on behalf of their own country respectively. The launch of the project cooperation marks one of the important results of President Xi’s visit to Singapore.
The first two China-Singapore inter-governmental cooperation projects are China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park and China-Singapore Tianjin eco-friendly city. After the sufficient investigation, demonstration, communication and negotiation of the two countries at the earlier stage, both sides agree that the 3rd inter-governmental cooperation project is themed on “modern interconnectivity and modern service economy” and fields such as financial service, aviation, transportation and logistics and information and communication technology should be regarded as the key cooperation fields at the beginning stage. Besides, the advantage of the big data in the Internet era should be fully played to promote the development of modern interconnectivity and modern service economy of western China. The cooperation of this project will take Chongqing city as the operational center, radiating the whole western area of China and drive the development of the entire western China through the win-win cooperation.
In order to coordinate and promote the smooth launch of the cooperation of this project, both sides agree to establish a cooperative mechanism of three levels, namely the joint steering council at the vice-premier level, the joint work committee at the ministerial level and the project implementation committee jointly built by the local government of the operation center and the relevant departments of Singapore.
This project is conducted in the context of positively promoting “the Belt and Road Initiative” and pushing forward the implementation of the strategies of Chinese Western Development and the Yangtze River economic belt construction. With the launch of this project and the official operation of the relevant coordinated mechanism, the cooperation of this project will be the highlight in leading Chinese Western Development and opening to the outside world.