In order to further deepen China-Singapore cooperation and promote the construction of the free trade pilot zone, a briefing on the high-quality development of Suzhou Industrial Park and investment in the free trade zone was held in Singapore on December 3.
Chinese Ambassador to Singapore Hong Xiaoyong and Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry Deputy Permanent Secretary and Director of Software Office Wu Pengyi attended the event and delivered speeches. Lan Shaomin, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee, delivered a keynote speech.
Hong Xiaoyong said in his speech that Suzhou Industrial Park has made proud achievements in the past 25 years, and the successful practice of park construction has fully demonstrated the importance of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win to both China and Singapore.
Next year, China and Singapore will usher in the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The development of bilateral relations faces new historical opportunities. I hope that friends from the Singaporean business community will actively participate in and promote the innovative development of Suzhou Industrial Park, and make new contributions to enhancing the inheritance of China-Singapore friendship and creating a new peak in China-Singapore cooperation.
In his speech, Wu Pengyi highly praised the achievements made by Suzhou Industrial Park in its 25 years of development and placed high hopes on future cooperation between New Zealand and China. He hoped that Suzhou Industrial Park would serve as a “pathfinder” for bilateral cooperation between New Zealand and China.
In his speech, Lan Shaomin first introduced Suzhou’s history, culture, and economic and social development. He said:
Suzhou is a thousand-year-old ancient city with a long history and profound accumulation. The city site has remained unchanged for more than 2,500 years, and its cultural heritage has continued, and many celebrities have emerged.
Suzhou is an open, prosperous and vibrant modern city where tradition and modernity complement each other and East and West meet and prosper. Since the reform and opening up, Suzhou has created the miracle of “the strongest prefecture-level city” and has become a vivid epitome of China’s successful practice of reform and opening up.
Suzhou is an extraordinary city and a hotbed for entrepreneurship. Suzhou has been working hard to optimize its development environment. Suzhou’s high-quality investment and development environment has won wide acclaim from the international community and has been selected by the World Bank as the “Gold Medal City for China’s Investment Environment”.
Lan Shaomin extended an invitation to Singaporean merchants, and Suzhou opened its arms to embrace visitors from all directions. He said that Suzhou is willing to share opportunities with Singapore in the construction of free trade zones, emerging industries, modern services and cross-border investment, and work together to create a win-win cooperation and a better future.
A signing ceremony was held on site，A number of Singaporean projects settled in Suzhou Industrial Park，Involving technology, professional services and other fields.
On the same day, Lan Shaomin also said in an exclusive interview with Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao that Suzhou is currently in a critical stage of transformation and innovation, climbing over obstacles, and to continue to climb higher and create new achievements in the new era, it must constantly surpass itself. Through opening up, we can make the incremental volume better, bigger and stronger, drive the stock with high-quality incremental volume, optimize the stock, and transform the stock, and promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the development and construction of Suzhou Industrial Park, which is also a very critical year. The park has received two biggest gift packages.
First: Approval of Suzhou Free Trade Zone
Suzhou Free Trade Zone was approved to cover 60 square kilometers, accounting for more than half of the Jiangsu Free Trade Zone, which reflects the high attention paid by the provincial party committee and government to Suzhou.
The 60 square kilometers of Suzhou Free Trade Zone are all in industrial parks, which also reflects the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government’s high attention to the park.
The approval of Suzhou Free Trade Zone will be a great boost to the new round of development of the park.
Second: Sino-Singapore Group is officially listed
On November 29, the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved the official listing of Sino-Singapore Group, making it the first national-level economic development zone development and operation entity approved for listing in China. The listing of Sino-Singapore Group means that the success of China-Singapore cooperation has become sustainable and replicable, and it also means that it has been fully recognized by the market.
These two big gift packages have given the Suzhou Industrial Park a new empowerment at the special time of the 25th anniversary of its development and construction, making the park even more powerful and creating very good opportunities and conditions for a new round of development.
2020 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Singapore, which is a new starting point for the development of Suzhou Industrial Park. Against this background, Lan Shaomin hopes that the park will further expand into new areas. “Through China-Singapore cooperation, the park will be transformed and achieve high-quality development. The park, which used to be dominated by manufacturing, must truly give it technology-driven capabilities on the basis of its original industries, give it the high end of the value chain, and give it the development of more emerging industries.”
Lan Shaomin said that in terms of mechanism, Suzhou Industrial Park still needs to learn more from Singapore. “25 years ago, the park started by learning from Singapore, and after institutional reconstruction, it has achieved the development of today’s park. Today, Singapore is also changing and making progress. Judging from Singapore’s 2019 plan, many concepts are still valuable to the park.”
“In addition to stimulating economic growth, Singapore’s urban transformation places great emphasis on bringing work and services closer to homes. This concept has many implications for industrial parks, which is to avoid the pendulum effect in urban planning,” said Lan Shaomin.
An intimate and open environment, a vibrant and innovative environment, a beautiful and livable environment… Suzhou is opening its arms to create a better future!
