BEIJING - Singapore will work with China to increase direct flights between the two countries, as part of efforts to grow business and people-to-people ties, Acting Minister for Transport Chee Hong Tat said on Saturday.
Speaking at a dinner event in Beijing marking Singapore’s National Day, Mr Chee noted that a 15-day visa-free policy for Singaporeans entering China has resumed, while the accelerated resumption of all direct flights between the two countries was announced during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Singapore on Aug 10 and 11.
“The Ministry of Transport will certainly want to facilitate and encourage more direct flights between our two countries,” said Mr Chee, who is on a week-long trip to China.
“We will work with our Chinese counterparts to try and see how we can move forward, and to have more direct flights to benefit our businesses and our people,” he told the audience at the event organised by the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.
Singapore Airlines resumed direct flights to China in December 2022 and said earlier in August that it plans to increase the frequency of flights to key destinations including Beijing and Shanghai from March 2024.
Airlines reportedly increased their monthly flights between Singapore and China from 160 in January to about 1,200 in June 2023.
Mr Chee, who is also Senior Minister of State for Finance and co-chairman of the Singapore Shandong Business Council, is on his first visit to China since 2019.
He said he looked forward to meeting Shandong’s leaders as well as staff of Singapore companies in the province during this trip, starting with Qingdao city on Sunday.
This is with an eye towards reconvening the 24th Singapore Shandong Business Council meeting later in 2023.
In 2020, Shandong was Singapore’s fifth-largest Chinese destination for investment, after the provinces of Jiangsu and Guangdong, and the municipalities of Shanghai and Chongqing.
In line with efforts to grow people-to-people exchanges, Mr Chee pointed to a new internship exchange scheme for young people between Singapore’s Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in China.
The Youth Interns Exchange Scheme launched in July is the first bilateral internship exchange arrangement that Singapore has inked with another country. To date, more than 100 companies have offered close to 300 internship opportunities under the programme.
Beyond high-level visits that have resumed since the start of 2023, there has also been a steady resumption of physical meetings across the eight provincial business councils Singapore has established with China to foster business engagements and partnerships, said Mr Chee.
Both countries can broaden and deepen cooperation in areas like trade and investment, innovation, and the digital and green economies, he added.
