DALIAN: China and Singapore will hold a high-level bilateral meeting next year to share their economic strategies in coping with a 'new world' of challenges arising from the global crisis, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said yesterday.

This economic strategy dialogue, mooted during his meetings with two top Chinese leaders over the past two days, will cover both countries' economic restructuring efforts and their substantial foreign exchange reserves held in US dollars, among other things.

Mr Goh met Vice-Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on Wednesday before heading to the north-eastern city of Dalian to meet Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday. He is also attending the World Economic Forum, a three-day international summit of business and political leaders dubbed the 'Summer Davos', in Dalian.

Describing his meetings with the two leaders, Mr Goh said: 'We discussed the state of the global economy, the challenges which we faced in overcoming the crisis, and what we are doing about the structure of the economy.

'From the discussion, I felt that we were actually facing common challenges. I proposed to Vice-Premier Li Keqiang that perhaps we could get our senior officials to brainstorm our respective strategy and benefit.'

Senior officials in Singapore's economic strategies committee and their Chinese counterparts will meet either in Beijing or Singapore. 'We're not looking for any iconic projects arising from the dialogue,' he said.

Both countries will swop tips on the challenge of protecting their huge foreign exchange reserves, which are heavily invested in US-dollar treasuries. There are rising concerns that the ballooning US fiscal deficit and the risk of a slump in the world's de facto reserve currency may drag down the value of US-dollar assets.

'So we've got to assess where the US dollar will be heading and where the renminbi will be heading,' said Mr Goh.

Another challenge for both sides is how to restructure their export-driven economies away from relying on American consumer demand, which has sagged as a result of the battered US economy.

'We cannot assume that the US will be a big consumer market for all of us,' said Mr Goh.

Now that China cannot work on the basis of a purely export-led economy, it has to concentrate on stimulating the domestic economy, according to Mr Goh.

'Therein lie opportunities for us to work together,' he said.

Premier Wen also highlighted China's efforts to restructure its economy in his speech at the Summer Davos yesterday evening.

China's stimulus package is focused on shoring up weak links in economic and social development and on boosting domestic consumption as an economic growth driver, he noted.

The Premier also pledged that China will stick to its policies of massive government stimulus and relatively loose money as 'the foundations of China's economic recovery are not stable, not solidified, and unbalanced'.

In response, Mr Goh noted that China's efforts to restructure its economy are already under way and it can expect growth to be much better in the second half. The worst is behind us, he said, and most economies are expected to crawl back into recovery.

China is now stimulating domestic demand by spending more to shore up its social safety net and to boost service sectors such as medical care and education.

'If they succeed, which I think they will, they will have a very strong base for the future, and people will be well taken care of,' Mr Goh said, adding that Singapore is riding on China's growth.

The Senior Minister, whose current trip is his second since his tour of southern Guangdong province in March, will remain in Dalian until tomorrow.

Yesterday, he also met the Prime Minister of Macedonia, Mr Nikola Gruevski, who invited Singaporean companies to invest in the central European country and to tap the European Union market. Mr Goh will meet Dalian's party secretary Xia Deren today.

DALIAN: The Tianjin eco-city, Singapore's joint venture with the northern Chinese city, is 'a very important project' which must succeed, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has declared.

That message was put across 'very forcefully' by Mr Wen during their meeting, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said yesterday.

Both leaders were in Dalian to attend the World Economic Forum, an international summit of economic and business leaders.

During their meeting, they discussed ways to take cooperation between the two countries to the next level, which included ensuring the success of the Tianjin eco-city.

'In Premier Wen's view, this is a very important project and he reiterated that this project must succeed or yi ding yao cheng gong,' said Mr Goh.

The project, which kicked off nearly two years ago, aims to transform a 30sqkm barren plot of land into a buzzing, green city housing about 350,000 people and creating up to 60,000 jobs over the next decade.

So far, the city has notched up 85 investment deals totalling some 14 billion yuan (S$3billion).

Mr Goh added that he is planning to visit the eco-city in April or May next year to take stock of its progress, and Mr Wen may join him if his schedule permits.

'Premier Wen was quite pleased and said to let him know and he will find a time to go. If he is free, we will go together and if he's not, I will see him in Beijing,' he said.

'So I will try to find a mutually convenient window for both of us to visit Tianjin eco-city to look at the progress and of course to give it a push.'

-end of ST articles