Chinese vice president attends Singapore's independence anniversary celebration

SINGAPORE, Aug. 9 -- Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao attended the celebration of Singapore's 50th anniversary of independence on Sunday.

Li, as a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, met with Singaporean President Tony Tan Keng Yam, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam earlier that day.

Li delivered the greeting message from President Xi. In his message, Xi extended congratulations to the Singaporean government and its people, saying China is willing to work together with Singapore to inject new impetus into the growth of Sino- Singaporean relations, so as to promote bilateral relationship to a new level.

Noting that the Singaporean government and its people have achieved many great accomplishments since the foundation of the nation, Li said bilateral trade and investment between China and Singapore have also been growing steadily since the establishment of the diplomatic ties between the two countries 25 years ago.

Saying that new highlights of cooperation between China and Singapore have been made in areas such as financial cooperation, science, education, human resources as well as social governance, Li said China is willing to further develop bilateral relationship with Singapore from a strategic height and with a long-term perspective.

On Singapore's taking-over as the coordinator between China and ASEAN, Li said China is willing to continue promoting a sustained and healthy development of the strategic partnership with ASEAN countries including Singapore.

Lee Hsien Loong expressed gratitude to President Xi for sending a special envoy to attend Singapore's independence golden jubilee, saying Singapore is willing to take the opportunity of the 25th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two countries to maintain the good momentum of development of bilateral relations.

He also expressed his hope to implement soon the third government-to-government cooperative project, and to continue work positively on the upgrading of the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

He said Singapore, as the coordinator between ASEAN and China, will play a positive role and push forward relations between ASEAN and China constantly.