On 8 June 2017, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC), exchanged views with Mr. Han Baochang, Director-General of China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity Administrative Bureau. Mr. Sun Xiyong, Deputy Director-General of the Administrative Bureau, and Mr. Zhang Xuehai, Deputy Director of Information and Public Relations Division of ACC, attended the meeting.

Director-General Han and Deputy Director-General Sun gave a brief overview of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity. As the third intergovernmental cooperation project between Singapore and China, the implementation of the initiative is based in Chongqing under the theme of “modern connectivity and modern services economy” with a focus on financial services, aerospace industry, transportation and logistics, information and communications technology. The initiative is aimed at building itself into a demonstration project of the Belt and Road Initiative, the grand western development programme and Yangtze River Economic Belt which will lead to further opening and development of western China. Since its inauguration in January 2016, the initiative has covered 4 groups of over 70 important projects with accumulated value of USD 16 billion. They stated that ASEAN is a priority direction for Chongqing’s Opening-up Policy and a critical area for the cooperation under the China-Singapore Demonstration Initiative. They looked forward to ACC’s continued support and assistance to achieve more progress in the implementation of the initiative.

Secretary-General Yang commended the cooperation between Chongqing and ASEAN and the fruitful achievements of the initiative, and outlined the recent work of ACC. She stated that ASEAN and China are economically complementary. The Belt and Road Initiative offers both sides a broader space for deepening cooperation. Chongqing possesses favorable geographical location. The initiative based in Chongqing offers opportunities for Chongqing to expand exchanges and cooperation with ASEAN countries. ACC would continue to serve as a bridge and bond to help Chongqing deepen its exchanges and cooperation with ASEAN countries for common development and win-win results.