President Tony Tan visiting China for Youth Olympics opening, talks with counterpart

President Tony Tan visits the Singapore athletes at the Games Village in Glasgow, Scotland a day before the official Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Dr Tan will arrive in China on Friday, Aug 15, to attend the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olym
President Tony Tan visits the Singapore athletes at the Games Village in Glasgow, Scotland a day before the official Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Dr Tan will arrive in China on Friday, Aug 15, to attend the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics Games (YOG) opening ceremony. -- ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

NANJING, China - PRESIDENT Tony Tan Keng Yam will arrive here on Friday to attend the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics Games (YOG) opening ceremony. His three-day visit is at the invitation of China's President Xi Jinping.

While here, Dr Tan and Mr Xi will also have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the games.

He will also meet the 18 Team Singapore youth athletes competing at the Games - just the second such event to be held after the inaugural YOG in Singapore four years ago. The games, involving about 3,800 athletes aged 14 to 18, kick off on Saturday.

On Sunday, Dr Tan is also scheduled to visit the Singapore-Nanjing Eco High-Tech Island, a bilateral project supported by the Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council. The total investment is expected to hit S$2.1 billion by the time the project is completed in 2020.

President Tan's delegation includes officials from the President's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A statement from the President's Office on Thursday said that following his trip to China, Dr Tan will visit Germany from Aug 19 to Aug 22. He will be attending the 5th Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences in his capacity as a member of the Honorary Senate of the Foundation of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.

He will also visit the Max Planck Society - one of Germany's foremost research centres - on Aug 21.

The next day , he visits two Munich-based Mittelstand companies - the German equivalent of small and medium-sized enterprises - which are global leaders in specific niches. The two are electronics company Rohde & Schwarz, and polysilicon firm Wacker Chemical.

During Dr Tan's absence, the Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers, Mr J Y Pillay, will exercise the functions of the office of the President.

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