New momentum over China-Singapore economic corridor

September 19, 2014

BEIJING - There is new momentum behind a proposed economic corridor between China and Singapore after mayors of cities along the route reached a consensus on the initiative at the ongoing meeting between China and ASEAN. The corridor will promote construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and Maritime Silk Road, from the Chinese cities of Nanning and Kunming, running through the Indo-China Peninsula and linking cities in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore with highways and railroads.

The idea has gradually gained ground since its inception in 2010, initially seen as a small programme to help merchandising trading rather than the country-level operation into which it has developed. Trade between China and members of the ASEAN amounted to US$443.51 billion in 2013, nearly five times that of 2003.

Despite rapid trade growth, economic collaboration between China and Singapore still face the bottleneck of poor infrastructure and a lack of capital. The mayors have vowed to improve transport and logistics infrastructure in the peninsula by strengthening the interconnection of highways, railways and airlines and allowing trade to flow more freely.

Do Tien Sam, former Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Vietnam Academy of Social Science, predicted that the corridor will create jobs and alleviate poverty. China aims to elevate bilateral trade with the ASEAN to US$500 billion by 2015, and to US$1 trillion by 2020. www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).