In an interview during his visit to Hong Kong yesterday, PM Lee reviewed his eight-day visit to Guangdong, Guangxi and Hong Kong and, for the first time, expounded Singapore’s position on the third government-to-government project between Singapore and China.

He said, the idea of this project was proposed by Zhang Gaoli, member of the Standing Committee of Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council of China, during his visit to Singapore last year. Singapore has been considering it for nearly a year, but “there is not a decision yet”, “believe there is still a process”. Zhang Gaoli is also the chairman of JCBC.

Yesterday, PM Lee revealed to Singapore media that China has been very active and Singapore is also taking it seriously. This is going to be “a very important decision” after the completion of Suzhou Industrial Zone and Tianjin Eco-City which is going to be the third government-to-government project. Singapore has to give it a careful thought.

He also confirmed that if this project is going to be carried out, both sides will emphasize “interconnection and modern service industry”. He further explains that the west part of Chinais vast and it would be suitable to connect different regions in that area. And the so-called “interconnection” is not limited to the flow of labor and goods but also includes the finance industry, telecommunication service and air service and so on.

He said, if the service level is to be promoted, there are many institutional obstacles to overcome which will not be handled by commercial institutes. So the government should be determined to connect different departments and institutes in different provinces to solve the problem jointly.

During his visit to Guangzhou Knowledge City, PM Lee maintained that we should continue to adopt the mode of “companies take the initiative, governments give their support”. He said yesterday that Singapore agrees with China on adopting “government-to-government” mode, meanwhile,Singapore made it clear that only after a clear and detailed plan has been worked out will the exact location of this project be decided.

Besides, he emphasized three aspects. First, it is crucial that this project should be commercially viable. Second, there must be a complete plan, answering the question of “what are we trying to do”. Third, we should be clear about our goal. Apart from being commercially viable, the goal must also be policy-guided, which means that if this project succeeds, it will offer a good example for other cities to follow. He cited examples of the Suzhou Industrial Zone and Tianjin Eco-City to illustrate his point.

PM Lee finished his journey yesterday and travelled back to Singapore.