Premier Li Keqiang said China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with Singapore, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and push their bilateral relations to a new level, during his talks with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at Istana, Singapore, on Nov 12.

The two leaders witnessed the exchange of a number of memorandums of understanding, and also signed an upgrade of the free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Singapore.

Premier Li said that Singapore is a friendly neighbor for China and important partner, and has been deeply involved in China’s reform and opening-up. He recalled that President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Singapore in 2015 and the two countries agreed on building a partnership of all-round cooperation in keeping with the times.

Premier Li pointed out that China and Singapore have complementary advantages and broad prospects for cooperation. He expressed the willingness to continue deepening innovation cooperation with Singapore and to keep improving the training of talents in finance, science, technology and enterprise.

He calls for taking the opportunity of signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly develop the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor for advancing and promoting two-way interconnection.

A second MoU elevates Guangzhou Knowledge City to the state-level status of bilateral cooperation. Premier Li called on both sides to actively expand cooperation in smart city construction, promote urban management upgrading and artificial intelligence development, and explore new local cooperation.

Lee said Singapore and China have continuously achieved new results in pragmatic cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, science and technology, education and culture, and have achieved mutual benefit and win-win results.

The Singaporean prime minister said the escalation of the China-Singapore FTA will bring tangible benefits to the enterprises and people of the two countries and send a powerful signal to the industrial and commercial circles to further expand trade and investment.

The two sides also exchanged in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern.