China Premier Li Qiang to make two-day official visit to Singapore

Later that evening, Mr Wong will host an official dinner in Mr Li’s honour.

Mr Li will then call on Acting President Eddie Teo on Sunday. Mr Teo is the chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers and will exercise the functions of the office of the president while President Tharman Shanmugaratnam is overseas on leave.

The Chinese premier will then engage Singapore and Chinese business leaders at the Singapore-China Business Roundtable, hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry.

LONGSTANDING RELATIONS

Singapore and China’s relations are broad-based, underpinned by regular high-level exchanges and robust institutional frameworks.

There has been a steady flow of high-level engagements from both sides. For instance, Mr Wong met Mr Xi and Mr Li in Beijing in June this year. DPM Gan also met Vice President Han Zheng and Vice Premier He Lifeng in the Chinese capital last month.

Both sides’ leaders also meet during the annual Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation.

On the economic front, China has been Singapore’s largest merchandise trading partner since 2013 – contributing 13.2 per cent of its global merchandise trade last year – and the country’s third-largest trading partner for services in 2023.

Since 2013, Singapore has been China’s largest foreign investor in terms of investment flow. Total bilateral trade last year amounted to S$170 billion, a 1.8 per cent year-on-year increase.

Singapore also received 3.08 million visitors from China last year.

The high-level economic engagement also includes three government-to-government projects – the Suzhou Industrial Park established in 1994, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin-Eco City launched in 2008, and the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative which marks its 10th anniversary this year.