Bilateral trade between China and Singapore reached 13.1 billion Singapore dollars (7.8 billion US dollars) for the first 10 months of 1999, representing a growth of 5.7 percent compared with the same period last year, a senior trade officer from Singapore Trade Development Board (TDB) told a press conference on December 16.

At the press conference held to brief media on the result of TDB's promotional and facilitation efforts to strengthen Singapore 's external trade wing, Ko Khee Hwee, director for the International Operation in East Asia and Pacific, TDB, also said that as trade between the two countries has been rising rapidly since 1990, the TDB expects the total bilateral trade for 1999 to exceed 15 billion Singapore dollars (8.93 billion US dollars).

"With China's impending accession to the WTO," Ko said, "we expect Sino-Singapore to strengthen further as Singapore business gain greater market access."

"Singapore exporters of IT products and chemicals will also stand to benefit from the anticipated lowering of tariffs for these products, which are amongst Singapore's major items of export to China," Ko added.

Ko underlined that China has made significant advances in the field of biotechnology and precision science and Singapore companies could collaborate with renowned Chinese research institutions to commercialize their innovations.

"Riding on this wave of opportunities in China," Ko pointed out, "TDB plans to intensify its efforts in key sectors such as telecommunications, IT, e-commerce service and biotechnology."

In this regard, TDB cited as an example the MarinEx Pharmaceuticals (Singapore) Pte Ltd which has signed a technology transfer agreement with the Qingdao Ocean University, China, to acquire the rights to develop, produce, market and distribute a marine-based burn cream product, a technology originally developed by the Qingdao Ocean University.

Another example given out is the biotechnology company of Floritech which recently tied up with a Singapore research institute to commercialize the production of disease-resistant and high quality flowers and plants and is further expanding their production bases in China with the assistance from TDB.

Over the years, Sino-Singapore trade has been the highest in volume out of that between China and Southeast Asian countries.