On September 12, the Jiangsu Construction Promotion Conference was successfully held in Singapore, hosted by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Provincial Department of Commerce, and the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office, and co-organized by the Suzhou Industrial Park Management Committee. Xia Xinmin, Vice Governor of the People’s Government of Jiangsu Province, Cao Zhongming, Chinese Ambassador to Singapore, and Shen Junxiong, Executive Director of the China Department of the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry, attended the meeting and delivered speeches. Fei Shaoyun, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, made a theme promotion. Deng Yuchang, Director of the International Relations and Cooperation Department of the Singapore Ministry of National Development, and other political and business representatives attended the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Li Zhen, Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. Nearly 90 local enterprises and more than 150 people from Jiangsu and Singapore participated in the promotion activities.
Xia Xinmin pointed out in his speech that Jiangsu is located at the intersection of the “Belt and Road” and the overlapping area of the two national strategies of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. It is an important gateway for China to connect with the world and go to the world, and it is one of China’s regions with strong comprehensive strength, high degree of openness and great development potential. Over the years, Jiangsu and Singapore have carried out all-round cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, urban construction, humanities, etc., and have achieved fruitful results. In particular, the Suzhou Industrial Park jointly developed and constructed by China and Singapore has become a benchmark for the development of China’s development zones. As China-Singapore relations enter a new stage of development, the two sides should jointly carry forward the spirit of the Silk Road, work together to seize the development opportunities of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, encourage and guide enterprises with strength and willingness to invest and start businesses in each other’s countries, expand markets, and achieve common development and mutual benefit and win-win results; work together to build a platform for scientific and technological innovation exchanges, carry out technical exchanges and cooperation in new energy, new material applications, intelligent construction, prefabricated buildings, sponge city construction, etc., and share scientific and technological innovation results; work together to expand the space for cooperation in the construction field, promote the active participation of enterprises from both sides in the investment and construction of infrastructure such as ports, airports, docks, railways, roads, and industrial parks, promote the extension of cooperation areas to the entire upstream and downstream industrial chain, and form a new development pattern with complementary advantages in industrial structure.
Cao Zhongming said in his speech that China and Singapore are friendly neighbors and important partners. The scope of cooperation is constantly expanding, and the economic and trade cooperation has achieved fruitful results, which not only effectively promotes the development of each other, but also sets a benchmark for pragmatic cooperation among regional countries. Based on the new positioning of “all-round, high-quality, forward-looking partnership”, the prospects for China-Singapore economic and trade cooperation are broader and will bring more benefits to the people of both countries. Jiangsu is an old friend of Singapore. Jiangsu and Singapore have a sound cooperation mechanism, in-depth economic and trade cooperation, and close personnel exchanges. It is hoped that enterprises from both sides will give full play to their respective advantages, seize the development opportunities of the two countries and regional markets, increase cooperation in planning, green and low-carbon transformation and technological innovation in the construction field, and achieve win-win development.
Fei Shaoyun introduced the relevant situation of Jiangsu’s housing and urban and rural construction in the theme promotion. He said that Jiangsu is committed to promoting the high-quality development of housing and urban and rural construction, and constantly promoting urban and rural development to move towards greening, urban construction to quality, urban governance to smart, construction industry to industrialization, and construction industry to internationalization. He hopes that the two sides will strengthen business cooperation in the field of housing and urban and rural construction, promote exchanges and mutual learning in urban planning and design, housing construction security, sponge city construction, urban renewal, cultural heritage protection and utilization, etc.; strengthen industrial cooperation in the construction field, share scientific and technological achievements, technical accumulation, and engineering experience in the field of urban and rural construction; strengthen international cooperation, promote mutual recognition of engineering construction standards and qualifications, and work together to explore third-party markets in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, etc. in the construction field, and jointly promote the implementation of engineering projects to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
Shen Junxiong said that this promotion conference is an important platform for Chinese and Singaporean companies to get to know each other, deepen cooperation and establish partnerships. Last year, the leaders of the two countries upgraded China-Singapore relations to an all-round, high-quality, forward-looking partnership, reflecting our common commitment to bilateral cooperation and seeking new cooperation in forward-looking areas such as digital and green economy. Both China and Singapore are striving to reduce carbon footprints and achieve more sustainable economic growth. Under the framework of the “Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council”, green economy is one of the key areas of cooperation. It is hoped that both sides will make good use of this exchange platform and actively explore new cooperation in key areas such as urban planning and development.
At the meeting, two companies from Jiangsu released 17 projects, including urban renewal, commercial office, industrial development, etc., with a total investment of more than 40 billion yuan, actively attracting advantageous enterprises to settle in or cooperate. Chinese and Singaporean companies made exchanges and signed 10 cooperation and intent agreements, covering cooperation projects such as think tank construction, park planning, medical big data, and construction, further deepening cooperation in urban planning and design, infrastructure construction, intelligent construction, green buildings and other fields, and contributing to the high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road” with fruitful results, and making new and greater contributions to the all-round, high-quality and forward-looking partnership between China and Singapore.
Before the meeting, Xia Xinmin and his delegation met with some of the guests. During their stay in Singapore, they also visited the Chinese Embassy in Singapore, the Ministry of National Development of Singapore, the Housing and Development Board of Singapore and other departments to discuss matters related to strengthening cooperation between Jiangsu and Singapore, and exchange experiences and practices in the construction of affordable housing and fire protection of high-rise buildings; they investigated the Toa Payoh HDB project undertaken by Jiangsu construction companies in Singapore, held discussions with some Jiangsu companies in the construction field in Singapore, listened to the introduction of the local development of the companies, and visited and comforted the employees of the companies.