Sino-Singapore Bilateral Trade Expected to Hit Record HighBilateral Trade between China and Singapore is expected to reach US$12 billion in 2000, a record high since 1958 when the two countries began keeping record of their bilateral trade volumes, according to statistics by Singapore's Trade Development Board.The statistics released days ago show that the two-way trade between Singapore and China in the first eleven months of 2000 was US$11.28 billion, up 33.09 percent compared to the same month of last year and positioning China at Singapore's sixth largest trade partner. Data also show that the growth rate of 33.09 percent in the Sino-Singapore trade was much higher than the 23.95 percent increase in Singapore's total external trade volume from January to November in 2000 which stood at US$247.7 billion. In the period, Singapore's export to China grew by 39.97 percent to reach US$4.84 billion while its imports from China increased by 28.33 percent to hit US$6.4 billion. Officials from the Economic and Commercial Counselor's Office of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore attributed the hike in Sino- Singapore bilateral trade to the strong economic growth in both countries and the optimization of trade composition. They said Singapore's economy grew by a strong 9.8 percent in the first eleven months of this year while China has achieved stable robust economic growth which was more than the expected seven percent growth. The Sino-Singapore bilateral trade benefited from the good environment brought about by the strong economic growths in both countries, they said. They also noted that all of the top ten products Singapore imported from China were high value-added electronic products except the raw zinc and electronic products had a bigger share of Singapore's imports from China with parts and accessories for autoprocessing equipment, mini-motor, 3.5-inch disk drives, integrated circuits and printed circuit boards amounting for 35 percent of the total. Electronic and petroleum products were the biggest categories of Singapore's exports to China with printed circuits boards, monointegrated circuits, industrial refrigerating equipment contributing 37 percent of the total and carving a bigger slice of the pie. They said such a product composition in Sino-Singapore bilateral trade can reflect the advantage in Singapore's electronics and oil refinery industries and meet the needs of both countries. |
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