NANNING<\/span> \u2013 While trade is no longer always seen as a mutually beneficial exercise in today\u2019s unsettled and troubled world, countries have to work to make it a \u201cwin-win\u201d, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on May 19 during a visit to Guangxi autonomous region in south-western China.<\/p>\n In a meeting with Guangxi\u2019s party secretary Chen Gang in the capital, Nanning, SM Lee noted that trade has become mixed up with considerations about security, resilience and rivalry, as well as worries about vulnerability.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we are honest, we have to say that it is not always win-win, but we have to work to make it win-win,\u201d he said, highlighting the considerable potential for economic cooperation in trade, investment and many other areas between Singapore and China, and between China and the wider ASEAN region.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like to build on what we have done, to do more of this, and to enhance not just the economic well-being of our countries, but also the human well-being of our populations. Because, ultimately, the purpose of trade economics is to make the lives of our people better.\u201d<\/p>\n Guangxi, which has an ethnically diverse population of more than 50 million people, acts as a gateway to western China, with its direct access to the sea via the Gulf of Tonkin.<\/p>\n Also known in China as Beibu Gulf, the waterway off the coast of northern Vietnam connects provinces like Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan with South-east Asia.<\/p>\n In his meeting on May 19, SM Lee pointed to the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) as one example of how commerce has resulted in mutual benefit.<\/p>\n The trade corridor, which allows goods to be moved from western China to ASEAN by road, rail, sea and, soon, river, is part of a wider bilateral connectivity initiative centred around Chongqing that SM Lee had a hand in starting when he was prime minister in 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not often that in politics you start something and you can see it end because projects take many years to come to fruition,\u201d SM Lee said. \u201cBut here, in international relations, we have been able to make this happen, and I think it is a very good foundation on which we can do a lot more, as two peoples and two countries.\u201d<\/p>\n Guangxi\u2019s Mr Chen, who stepped into his current role in late 2024, was effusive about the region\u2019s prospects for future development, lauding SM Lee\u2019s contributions towards this.<\/p>\n As a relatively underdeveloped region of China, Guangxi hopes to strengthen cooperation with Singapore in the fields of port construction, logistics and shipping, Mr Chen said, noting that the Republic has also set an example for many developing countries in other areas, such as finance and services.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the capabilities of the (ILSTC) are further strengthened, and with the opening of the Pinglu Canal, I believe our role in leveraging this maritime route with ASEAN, especially Singapore, will become increasingly prominent,\u201d Mr Chen added.<\/p>\n