Against the backdrop of an APEC leaders' pow-wow this weekend, Singapore has asked China to consider joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

This was raised in talks between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Hu Jintao yesterday morning in Beijing. Both are due to attend the APEC leaders' meeting in Vladivostok, Russia.

The TPP, a free trade initiative started in 2005 by Brunei, Chile, Singapore and New Zealand, is seen by many to have been hijacked by the United States to check China's rising influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Membership of the TPP is likely to be a hot issue in the coming APEC meeting.

Mr Lee told Singapore reporters after his meeting with the Chinese leader yesterday that China and Asean are making "good" progress in regional cooperation, with China now joining the South-east Asian grouping in talks about a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

But such progress must be extended to regional cooperation across the Pacific - between the western Pacific and the US and Latin America - a belief that Mr Lee said he has conveyed to President Hu.

"That has to progress too," he said. "There's TPP which Singapore is participating in . . . China is not, yet. But if you take a longer-term perspective, at some point, China might consider (joining) if it makes sense - not on the immediate agenda, but something for the longer term."

The two leaders also reviewed the cooperation between their countries over the years, noting the "high points" that started with the Suzhou Industrial Park project in 1994 to the Tianjin Eco-City project which was launched in 2007 - which PM Lee visited yesterday.

Mr Lee said that the first project has performed beyond expectations, while the Eco-City project is "making progress physically on the ground".

"It's off to a good start," he said. "The physical development is progressing and the Tianjin authority is giving its full support. But, of course, it has a long way to go yet. It's an ambitious project."

Tianjin hopes that the Eco-City project, driven by Keppel Corporation on the Singapore side, will develop a good green environment and clean industries for the municipality.

"The physical development has begun but to see its full fruition, it will take quite a few years more," Mr Lee said. "At the same time, of course, it has to be commercially viable. And that's something I'm sure the partners are very conscious of."

The Singapore-China projects, including the Sichuan Hi-Tech Innovation Park which Mr Lee visited on Monday, "are all signs that we are keeping our bilateral cooperation progressing in step with our needs in the two countries", he said.

"We will continue to benefit from them and we will continue to develop further," Mr Lee said.

September 6, 2012

Source: Business.Asiaone

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