Fifteen project agreements worth over $3 billion were signed at the 10th Singapore-Zhejiang Economic and Trade Council meeting held in Singapore on Monday, the highest number of project deals since the bilateral meetings began in 2003.
IE Singapore said the agreements attest to the ongoing, strengthening ties between Singapore and Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province of China.
The projects span the areas of education, environmental services, financial services, marine economy development and social management.
This year's meeting was attended by Ms Grace Fu, Minister, Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs and Zhejiang Party Secretary Xia Baolon, in his first official visit to Singapore.
Mr Xia was accompanied by a 70-member strong delegation comprising key officials and business leaders from Zhejiang. The delegation visited Marina Barrage, Gardens by the Bay, URA, Hyflux and Pinnacle@Duxton to learn more about Singapore's experience in urban management.
Said Ms Fu: "Party Secretary Xia Baolong and I have discussed at-length the direction for Zhejiang-Singapore cooperation when we met in Zhejiang last November."
"We agreed to focus on social management and urban planning, and promote modern services to support Zhejiang's developmental plan. I am pleased to see that we have delivered concrete outcomes today."
"We hope to see more collaborative projects that will bring long term and sustained benefits to both Zhejiang and Singapore."
In the first nine months of 2014, Singapore's actual investments in Zhejiang reached $419 million. As of October 2014, cumulative actual investments have amounted to $4.96 billion with 1,063 projects.
In the first nine months of this year, bilateral trade between the two increased 8.4 per cent to $4.54 billion.
The latest bilateral ventures include a township project between the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) and the Shaoxing city government in the Shaoxing Binhai New City. The SCE is an arm of IE Singapore which leads public sector collaboration projects with foreign countries. The project will integrate Singapore-style township planning and social management concepts such as community centres, transport hub integration and public housing.
Temasek Holdings' subsidiary Mapletree will partner the Ningbo city government on several projects across different industries. They include a modern services park in Ningbo's Cidong Binhai district, an International Autoparts Industrial Park in Yuyao District, and a mixed-use development in Jiangbei district. The mixed-used development will feature a specialty medical centre to service the local community.
Mapletree and Ningbo city government will also set up a special committee to drive progress and implementation of these projects. IE Singapore and the Zhejiang Department of Commerce will support the work of this committee.
