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First contracts signed under China-Singapore trade project
Updated: 2016-01-09
By Wang Yifei, Xinhua
Chinese and Singaporean companies signed contracts worth 6.56 billion U.S. dollars at a ceremony in Chongqing on Friday inaugurating a government-to-government (G-to-G) trade project in the southwestern Chinese metropolis.
The deals came within the project's remits including setting up a center in Chongqing to offer cross-border financial settlements and financing, opening more air routes between Chongqing and Singapore, and a Singaporean logistics company establishing a warehouse base in Chongqing.
Also on Friday, a management committee was established for the G-to-G project, announced during President Xi Jinping's visit to Singapore in November.
The project will have four main areas of collaboration -- financial services, aviation, logistics and information technology.
It is the third such deal between the two countries, following the Suzhou Industrial Park established in 1994 in east China's Jiangsu Province and the Tianjin Eco-city inaugurated in 2008 in north China's port city of Tianjin.
Huang Qifan, mayor or Chongqing, said the latest project fits into China's broader development of its trade infrastructure including the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It will become a new growth engine for the city and boost the central and western regions, Huang said.
Chongqing enjoys a thriving economy and is one of China's fastest-growing cities.
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