These two sectors were highlighted at a joint business council meeting co-chaired by Minister of National Development Mah Bow Tan and Tianjin mayor Huang Xingguo on Thursday.

The historic port city, which is promoting itself as 'Charming Tianjin, a Pearl in the Bohai Sea', is looking to tap Singapore's experience in creating a vibrant tourism industry.

In particular, Singapore's experience in developing an international cruise centre and a waterfront tourism area will be useful to Tianjin, said Mr Huang at the meeting, the second since the Singapore-Tianjin Economic and Trade Council was set up in 2006.

Singapore's polytechnic and tertiary institutions can also share their experience to help the city plug 'the big gap (that) still exists between the development of vocational education of Tianjin and the demands of its economic growth', said Mr Jin Runcheng, director of Tianjin's municipal education commission.

Mr Mah, who led a business delegation of 45 Singapore companies on a three-day visit to Tianjin, welcomed the 'new opportunities for Singapore companies' which opened up in these two service sectors.

'Tourism and education are areas in which we are strong in and where Tianjin is moving into,' said the minister.

Mr Mah observed that Tianjin is 'going through not just economic but physical transformation to improve the aesthetics of the city'.

'It is also moving beyond the traditional manufacturing sector into services such as retail, tourism... where Singapore has the capabilities to value-add,' he told reporters after the meeting.

Apart from building new hotels and hospitality management, Singapore companies can also explore potential projects such as restoring and designing Tianjin's historical foreign concession districts into modern dining and lifestyle areas, he suggested.

Read the full report in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.