At the just-concluded assembly of the seventeenth Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC), the apex bilateral cooperation platform between China and Singapore, the 2 sides agreed to leverage on digital economy as one of many a number of impetuses for bilateral cooperation whereas forging forward by way of COVID-19 and past.
The seventeenth JCBC assembly was co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng and Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Heng Swee Keat on Wednesday by way of video hyperlink.
With the pandemic accelerating present structural shifts, the 2 sides agreed to discover new areas of collaboration, in explicit in digital economy and inexperienced growth, mentioned a press launch issued by Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday.
“To seize the opportunities of the digital age, both sides agreed to include innovation cooperation as a new pillar of collaboration this year, covering the digital economy, smart cities, and science and technology innovation cooperation,” the press launch mentioned.
Among the 14 MoUs and agreements introduced on the assembly, the MoU on “Single Window” Interconnection Consortium Blockchain will see the institution of a “single window” interconnection consortium utilizing the decentralized blockchain mannequin.
This pact, inked by customized authorities from each side, will enhance the effectivity of exchanging customs and trade-related data, finally lowering prices for merchants, Heng was quoted by native media as saying.
In an op-ed revealed in the Chinese-language paper Lianhe Zaobao on Tuesday, Heng additionally talked about Singapore’s willingness to work collectively with China on the entrance of digital economy.
“China is a global digital leader, with a digital economy that makes up one third of its GDP. In Southeast Asia, we have one of the fastest-growing digital economies, which is projected to grow to more than 300 billion U.S. dollars by 2025,” he wrote.
The digital collaborations between Singapore and China will profit the businesses, and impress efforts to combine ASEAN’s digital economy, Heng mentioned.
He cited an instance of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor underneath the framework of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, which is the third inter-governmental challenge between Singapore and China after the Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco City. Despite the continuing pandemic, a 35 % enhance in cargo flows alongside the hall was reported in the primary half of 2021 as in contrast to the identical interval in 2020.
“Our partnership on the trade corridor focuses on how the physical movement of goods can be complemented by digitalization to promote seamless data flows and paperless documentation,” Heng mentioned, including that this not solely optimizes provide chain operations, however can probably velocity up customs clearance, commerce financing, insurance coverage, and different associated actions.
Digital economy requires the digital connectivity. China-Singapore (Chongqing) International Dedicated Connectivity (IDC), China’s first accredited country-to-country devoted connectivity, was launched in 2019. It gives a devoted knowledge channel between Singapore and China’s Chongqing, providing a greater community expertise that includes decrease latency and packet loss and higher community reliability.
At the IDC discussion board held in Chongqing as a part of Smart China Expo (SCE) in August this 12 months, China’s Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region introduced becoming a member of the IDC, signing a proposal on the IDC co-construction, sharing, and cooperation with the Chongqing Big Data Application and Development Administration.
It was disclosed from the discussion board that almost 50 corporations from each side have signed IDC leasing contracts or have been conducting cooperation primarily based on the IDC, protecting distant healthcare, good logistics and different fields.
A cloud-based service platform underneath the IDC was additionally launched on the discussion board to facilitate Singapore corporations’ companies in China and their cooperation with their Chinese counterparts.
The Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative (SCI), established in 2019, conforms properly to Singapore’s imaginative and prescient to construct a Smart Nation.
According to a press launch after the SCI’s 2nd Joint Implementation Committee assembly in October this 12 months, 4 extra MoUs in areas like e-invoicing, IoT and blockchain had been inked to promote extra environment friendly and trusted cross-border digital connectivity.
Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) Permanent Secretary Yong Ying-I mentioned the signing of the 4 extra MoUs reaffirms the dedication to proceed constructing a bridge of digital connectivity between Singapore and China’s Shenzhen, and the SCI serves as a reference for wider digital and good metropolis cooperation in the Greater Bay Area in southern China and Southeast Asia.
China has made unremitting efforts over the previous 12 months to digitally hyperlink with the remainder of the world. A testomony is China’s utility final month to be a part of the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, the primary of its variety settlement representing a brand new type of economic engagement and commerce in the digital period. The settlement was first signed by Singapore, Chile and New Zealand in June 2020.
China’s utility would enormously improve the worldwide consideration in the direction of digital economy and assist preserve and strengthen its competitiveness in this subject, mentioned Pang Yan, co-director of the Business Analytics Center of the National University of Singapore (NUS), in an interview with Xinhua.
Professor Lawrence Loh, director of the Center for Governance and Sustainability, Business School of NUS, informed Xinhua that commerce is the lifeblood of Singapore’s open economy, and the movement of products and providers might be enhanced and facilitated by digital means.
With the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership coming into drive on Jan. 1, 2022, it might give rise to a brand new digital period in the Asia-Pacific area and supply “an additional dimension” for the collaboration between Singapore and China, Loh mentioned.
Source: Xinhua