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BEIJING • Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean is visiting Beijing from today to Tuesday, where he will co-chair an annual high-level bilateral meeting with Chinese Vice- Premier Zhang Gaoli. The meeting tomorrow will be the 13th of the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC), a platform to discuss ways to deepen and broaden Singapore-China cooperation. The first JCBC was held in 2004, with then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and then Vice-Premier Wu Yi as co-chairs. Mr Teo, who is also the Coordinating Minister for National Security, and Mr Zhang, who is a member of the Communist Party's apex Politburo Standing Committee, will also co-chair meetings of the 18th China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Joint Steering Council (JSC) and the 9th Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city JSC. The Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-city are the first two government-to-government projects, started in 1994 and 2008 respectively, which have helped cement ties between the two countries. A highlight of this JCBC is the inaugural meeting of the joint steering council of the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, a third government-to-government project that was launched in November 2015 and aims to turn Chongqing into a logistics and services hub. Together, the two leaders will review the progress made on the three flagship projects and discuss the direction of future bilateral cooperation, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. Mr Teo will also have separate meetings with other Chinese leaders. He will meet the Singaporean community in Beijing at a ministerial dialogue in conjunction with the 15th anniversary of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (SingCham). ... Truncated ... http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/eas...-premier-zhang |