SINGAPORE - Cross-border financing deals worth 25.3 billion yuan (S$5.2 billion) have been completed so far under the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative (CCI) Project, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Chan Chun Sing told Parliament on Monday (March 19).

These have helped provide Chongqing companies with "more financing options and raising their international profile", said Mr Chan.

He was responding to a question by Ms Sun Xueling (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) about the progress of CCI, a government-to-government project launched in November 2015 and formally known as the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstrative Initiative on Strategic Connectivity.

The CCI aims to boost growth in China's less developed western region by improving Chongqing's transport and service links to the region and beyond.

Other gains from this project include improving aviation connectivity from five flights to 14 flights per week between Singapore and Chongqing.

Since December 2017, three block-train services have been commissioned between Chongqing and Guangxi per week, as part of a transport corridor project under the CCI. It is expected to become a daily service as volumes grow, said Mr Chan.

The CCI-Southern Transport Corridor (CCI-STC) project aims at linking Chongqing to Qinzhou in the south by rail, and from Qinzhou to Singapore and beyond by sea. It could reduce the time needed to transport goods between Chongqing and Singapore to about one week, a third of today's alternative routes, and result in savings in logistics costs.

THE BUSINESS TIMES