Good progress: Wentao speaks at a news conference in Beijing. China’s Commerce Minister confirmed that there would be no rollback of opening-up measures in the services and investment sectors. — Reuters
BEIJING: China and Singapore’s economic and trade ties will be reinforced by high-level free trade deals in the coming years, effectively mitigating the impact of geoeconomic fragmentation and creating new investment opportunities in each other’s markets, say trade experts and business leaders.
The two countries announced last Saturday that they had completed substantive negotiations on the upgrade of their bilateral free trade agreement.
The objective of the upgrade is to improve market access for their companies while also establishing more transparent and advanced economic practices.
With agreements signed by China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Singapore’s Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong, the two sides confirmed that there would be no rollback of opening-up measures in the services and investment sectors and promised each other that their respective doors would only open wider, said the Commerce Ministry.
The upgraded deal, once sealed, will show the world that business ties between China and Singapore are on course to reach new heights amid both countries’ steadfast multilateral push for the regional integration of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, said Gao Lingyun, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.
In addition to advancing preparations for the further enhancement of the Asean-China Free Trade Area, this move will upgrade the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact, said Guo Da, assistant president at the Haikou, Hainan province-based China Institute for Reform and Development.
It will also create favourable conditions for China to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, of which Singapore is a member, Guo said.
China’s commerce ministry said that the two countries will continue follow-up work related to legal review and translation of texts and fulfill their respective domestic procedures to sign the agreement as soon as possible.
China and Singapore signed the free trade agreement in 2008 and upgraded it in 2018.
They upgraded the agreement again and launched subsequent negotiations to further liberalise services and investment based on a negative list model in December 2020.
Driven by mega free trade deals such as the RCEP agreement and the growth of the Belt and Road Initiative and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, China and Singapore saw their two-way trade value jump 22.8% year-on-year to US$115.13bil (RM507bil) in 2022, according to China’s General Administration of Customs.
From January to October 2022, Singapore’s investment in China reached US$9.61bil (RM42bil), up 15.7% year-on-year, while China’s investment in the South-East Asian country amounted to US$6.35bil (RM28bil), surging 27.8% on a yearly basis, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. — China Daily/ANN
