'Our relationship is not meant to last just one, two years, but for decades,' he told Jiangsu party boss Liang Baohua yesterday in Mandarin.

'So don't rely on me. We must count on the younger generation. I'm just laying the path. I'm almost 86, I don't have that long a road left.'

To lay the bridges for the future, he suggested that the province sends its talented young people to study in Singapore.

Singapore, a small country with just three million people, needs more talent, Mr Lee said as he started a four-day visit in China.

Jiangsu, on the other hand, would benefit when some of these Singapore-trained young men and women return to the province by the Yangtze River.

'You leave behind a small portion of your people to help us (Singapore) develop,' he said here at the provincial capital of Nanjing. 'They will help our entrepreneurs come to Jiangsu and other parts of China.'

He added: 'You have 1.3 billion people. We have three million. How are we going to compete with the United States and Western Europe? We need to 'borrow' your talented people. At the same time, China and Singapore work together. You will benefit from it and so will we.'

Mr Liang said he remembered MM Lee mooting an exchange programme between Singapore and Jiangsu secondary school students when they met in Singapore last year, and it was something that he was trying to implement soon.

Mr Lee noted that among all the Chinese provinces, Singapore enjoys the best relations with Jiangsu, where the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) - the biggest and most famous bilateral project between Singapore and China - is situated.

He arrived here on Saturday evening to attend the 15th anniversary celebration of the SIP.

Saying he was 'very happy' to see Suzhou have such a beautiful park now, he added that it needed to keep improving so as to remain ahead of other industrial parks in China and countries like Vietnam.

The key to doing that is to attract talent and to never be complacent about success. 'Never think that one could always stay ahead when you have achieved success,' he said during the hour-long meeting with Mr Liang that was conducted in Mandarin.

'Singapore does not think along those lines. If we do, we will be in trouble. We constantly think of new changes and new plans.'

The current trip is MM Lee's 30th to China and his 10th to Jiangsu, noted Mr Liang, calling the Singapore leader 'an old friend' of both China and Jiangsu.

Mr Lee also called on former Chinese vice-premier Li Lanqing last night for a private meeting.

He leaves today for Suzhou, where he will be joined in the celebrations by Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, Mr Liang and former vice-premier Wu Yi.

MM Lee, who was in Japan before arriving in China, is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng on this trip. Mr Wong will witness the ground-breaking of two new Sino-Singapore projects.

These continue the strong bilateral cooperation that started with the SIP in 1994 and the ongoing Tianjin eco-city.

The new projects are the Singapore-Nanjing Eco High-Tech Island and the Suzhou-Nantong High Tech Park.

While the projects are driven by the private sector, they are overseen by the Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council, which is co-chaired by Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan and Mr Liang.

The Nantong project is also driven by the China-Singapore SIP Development (CSSD), which manages the SIP. This is the company's first project outside of the Suzhou park.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, Senior Minister of State (National Development and Education) Grace Fu, Minister of State (Trade and Industry and Manpower) Lee Yi Shyan and government officials are part of the delegation.

-end of ST article