Tomorrow, I will be co-chairing the 21st Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) with People’s Republic of China Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang in Chongqing. As the apex bilateral mechanism between Singapore and China, the JCBC is more than a platform for dialogue. It has anchored our partnership, allowing leaders and officials from both sides to build trust, review progress, and set high-level direction to deliver substantive outcomes.
This 21st edition of the JCBC is especially meaningful, as it coincides with several bilateral milestones. First, we mark the 35th anniversary of Singapore-China diplomatic relations this year, with PM Lawrence Wong and Premier Li Qiang exchanging official visits.
Second, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative (CCI) — our third Government-to-Government (G2G) project. This follows recent anniversaries of our first two G2G projects — the 30th anniversary of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) last year and the 15th anniversary of the Tianjin Eco-City in 2023.
We are holding the JCBC in Chongqing to commemorate this. I look forward to seeing how the CCI has evolved to support emerging priorities central to both our economies, such as green development, digital transformation, and supply chain resilience.
I also visited our State-level Bilateral Cooperation Project — the Guangzhou Knowledge City — in September this year, to commemorate its 15th anniversary. It continues to be a useful testbed for developing new technologies and to support knowledge sharing between Singapore and Guangzhou.
Last month, we held the 10th edition of the Singapore-China Leadership Forum, which is a longstanding platform for dialogue between our leaders and officials to exchange valuable experiences in leadership development.
These milestones are a testament to the steady, long-term vision that Singapore and China have shared in our partnership. We have continuously explored new areas of co-operation where both sides are able to draw on each other’s strengths. This has allowed our collaborations to endure, adapt, and deepen amidst evolving global and domestic circumstances.
Today, countries worldwide face many uncertainties — posed by rising geopolitical tensions, economic headwinds, and rapid technological advancements that bring both opportunities and challenges.
It is therefore all the more important that Singapore and China remain committed to our forward-looking vision, to continue building on the strong foundation of our partnership to chart a course for the future. There are three key areas which we can focus on.
