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| Chinese premier meets Singaporean deputy PM |
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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng Friday.
Wen said the third meeting of the China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation had produced good results.
China and Singapore are important trade partners and the trade volume between the two countries is one fourth of the China-ASEAN total (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
Suzhou Industrial Park, a Sino-Singaporean joint project, has played a key role in promoting exchanges and technology cooperation, he said.
The two countries have complementary economies and should expand areas of cooperation and international markets together.
Wen said the third meeting, which was co-chaired by Wong and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi on Friday morning, had reached consensus on launching negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) and this is highly significant in terms of the two countries' economic cooperation.
China has a positive attitude toward the FTA and is willing to launch the negotiation as soon as possible on the principle of "equality, mutual-benefit and considering each other's concerns," Wen said.
The two countries should strive to open each other's market in the framework of the Sino-ASEAN FTA, he said.
Wong said he agreed with Wen's views on bilateral relations. He said there have been frequent high-level visits and exchanges at all levels in recent years.
He said the two countries had made significant advances in economic cooperation, in particular the development of Suzhou Industrial Park, which has become a model of the two countries' cooperation.
Launching negotiations on a FTA extends cooperation between the two countries and aids the China-ASEAN FTA negotiation, Wong said.
The Singaporean side is willing to work with China and push bilateral relations forward, he said.
Wong is paying an official visit to China from Aug. 21 to 27 at the invitation of Wu Yi.
Wu and Wong co-chaired the third meeting of the China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation this morning and the eighth meeting of the Joint Steering Committee of the Suzhou Industrial Park Thursday.
Source: Xinhua
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