Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and his Chinesecounterpart Zhang Gaoli have reiterated the two countries’ commitment todeepening bilateral socio-economic cooperation during the former’svisit to China from July 27-31.

The SingaporeForeign Ministry’s July 28 statement said that the two leaders alsodiscussed Vice Premier Zhang’s proposal for Singapore and China toembark on the third government-to-government project and China’sinvitation to join in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The new project will be in a yet-to-be-decidedsite in the western region of China and will focus on urbanisationand modernisation.

According to “The StraitsTimes” daily, Singapore’s first government-to-government project withChina was the Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu province,which was set up in 1994, and the second, the Tianjin Eco-City, whichbroke ground in 2008.

The two joint ventures have grown more slowly than expected due to delay in building transport infrastructure.

Also in the meeting on July 28, Teo expressed Singapore’s intent toaccept China’s invitation to be a founding member of the AsianInfrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to meet the significantinfrastructure needs in Asia.

Singapore media said that China will probably be the largestshareholder in the AIIB, with a stake of as much as 50 percent of theinitial fund of 50 billion USD.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)has estimated that between 2010 and 2020, Asia will need to spendapproximately 8 trillion USD on infrastructure to maintain currentlevels of economic growth.

Also on July 28, the twoDeputy Prime Ministers attended the Singapore-China Forum on SocialGovernance, which was described by the two leaders as a useful platformfor both countries to continue to exchange experiences on socialgovernance issues.-VNA