SM Lee meets Chinese Vice-Premier He as Suzhou Industrial Park marks 30 years

SUZHOU – The Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), which marks its 30th anniversary in 2024, has “over-fulfilled” its mission as the first intergovernmental project between Singapore and China, said Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Apart from being a successful and prosperous township in its own right, the park has also been a useful model of economic management and urban development that China can adapt across the country – a role that he hopes the SIP will continue to play, he added on Nov 25.

SM Lee was speaking at the start of a meeting with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng, during the first leg of a six-day official visit to China. Both leaders were in the eastern coastal city of Suzhou to commemorate the SIP’s 30-year milestone.

Launched in 1994 with the backing of top leaders from both countries, the SIP was intended as a platform for China to adapt Singapore’s development experiences as it pursued its own reforms and industrialisation.

The project was also part of Singapore’s strategy to develop an external wing to its economy.

Today, the SIP has become one of China’s most competitive economic development zones, ranking first in a national index since 2016. The integrated township where people live, play and work spans 278 sq km and houses industries from biomedicine to nanotechnology.

Mr He, who oversees economic and financial issues in at the national level, lauded the SIP’s role as a “benchmark” for China as it opened up to the outside world.

Through the project, China gained know-how on cooperating with foreign governments to stimulate business activity, and on promoting the development of industrial parks, said Mr He, China’s economic czar.

He added that he believed the SIP – a “microcosm of reform and opening-up in China” – would continue to drive the development of other regions in the country.

Mr He thanked SM Lee for the role he had played in the SIP’s development, including resolving problems encountered while developing the park during its early years.

SM Lee said he was glad to be back at the SIP. He was the co-chairman of a joint steering committee shaping the project’s development in its first decade, and had attended the 10th anniversary of the park in 2004.

“What started off as an ambitious but promising project has now become a mature and very successful example,” he said, adding that both countries had been working on a 10-year plan to chart the further development of the project.

“We look forward to the SIP playing a useful role in the current circumstances and the current advanced state of economic development in China,” he added.

After their meeting, SM Lee was hosted by Mr He to lunch, and will take part in a series of commemorative activities in the afternoon.

From Suzhou, SM Lee will proceed to Beijing, where he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and attend a dinner hosted by the Chinese leader.

He will also meet Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference chairman Wang Huning, who is fourth-ranked in the Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s apex decision-making body. The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference is China’s top political advisory body.

SM Lee concludes his China visit in Shanghai, and returns to Singapore on Nov 29.

Accompanying him on the trip are his wife Mrs Lee, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Education Minister and Minister-in-charge of the SIP Chan Chun Sing, as well as Senior Ministers of State Sim Ann and Low Yen Ling.

(straits times)