Hainan, Hong Kong offer new ways for Singapore to connect with China, says PM Wong

HONG KONG – Hainan and Hong Kong offer Singapore new ways to connect with China, as its rapid development spurs the Republic to keep thinking of how it can add value to partners and to the world, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on March 28.

He was speaking to the Singapore media at the end of his visit to China.

During his trip from March 25 to 28, he attended the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province and met Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee in the special administrative region.

“We had very good discussions happening within the backdrop of excellent bilateral ties between China and Singapore,” PM Wong said.

“So that gives us many potential touchpoints within China itself, because we have Hong Kong, we have now the Hainan Free Trade Port, which is an interesting new opportunity.”

“We have projects in so many different provinces of China, and all of these different projects allow us to engage China in multiple ways, to participate in China’s development and to contribute to China’s success,” the Prime Minister added.

“So we will remain a long-term investor in China because we are confident about China’s longer-term prospects.”

Singapore’s major projects in China include flagship government-to-government initiatives in Suzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing.

While in Hainan, PM Wong said Singapore has long backed the development of the free trade port and will continue to provide support for its success.

The visit was his second to China in just nine months, after he made his first official trip there as prime minister in June 2025.

During his time in Hainan, he gave a keynote speech at the Boao Forum’s opening plenary, where he said China plays a critical role in shaping a more resilient global order as the world forges new pathways to cooperate.

In Hong Kong, he urged collaboration between the two cities amid their competition, and toured the Northern Metropolis, a planned mega tech and business hub that is set to become a new driver of growth for China’s Greater Bay Area.

“We will look at different new opportunities, including... exploring further collaboration in new areas, like artificial intelligence, science and technology, and the green economy, to complement what China itself is doing in its new 15th Five-Year Plan,” PM Wong said on March 28.

Witnessing China’s rapid changes should be a motivating factor for Singapore to keep finding new ways to contribute value to the world, he said.

“Each time we visit China, we also see how fast things are developing here, how rapid the changes are. And I think it’s also a good reminder for us in Singapore,” he added.

“The rapid developments in China, I think, also remind us that we cannot afford to stand still. We have to keep on upgrading our capabilities and think about how we add value to our partners and to the world.”

Unlike Hong Kong and Hainan, which have a big hinterland that is the main Chinese domestic market, “Singapore is only a country city, and we only have ourselves”, PM Wong said.

But while Singapore does not have a larger hinterland to fall back on, it does have the regional grouping of ASEAN.

“So we should work harder to integrate the wider ASEAN market, which we are doing, and we will continue to do, especially when we chair ASEAN next year,” he said.

Singapore takes up the grouping’s rotating chairmanship in 2027.

The Prime Minister suggested that both within and beyond ASEAN, Singapore could also seek to move faster on fostering cooperation through sub-regional groupings, such as the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

The zone is a strategic bilateral initiative between Singapore and Malaysia designed to create a seamless economic region spanning some 3,500 sq km in Johor.

“We are looking at how we can bring the Riau Islands into this,” he said, referring to the SEZ, “going back to the earlier, original idea of a growth triangle of Singapore, Johor and the Riau Islands”.

He added that Singapore also has connectivity arrangements with Vietnam.

“These sub-regional arrangements allow us to move faster, even if the whole of ASEAN is not able to move at the same pace,” PM Wong said. “And so we should continue to focus on these developments in order to provide us with that larger hinterland to operate from.”