Xiamen is first stop of SM Goh's Fujian trip

 

(Picture: Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong receiving a gift from Xiamen's party secretary Yu Weiguo yesterday. During a 50-minute meeting last night, Mr Goh told Mr Yu that he hoped to 'encourage more interaction between Singapore and Fujian in all fields'. - MFA Photo)

XIAMEN: Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong kicked off his five-day trip to the south-eastern Chinese province of Fujian yesterday with a meeting with Xiamen city's party secretary to discuss opportunities for closer interaction between the two sides.

During a 50-minute meeting last night, Mr Goh told Mr Yu Weiguo that the purpose of his visit to Fujian - his first in 29 years - was to 'encourage more interaction between Singapore and Fujian in all fields', as well as to explore business opportunities offered by the province.

Mr Goh - who is accompanied by Mrs Goh, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Manpower Lee Yi Shyan and other leaders, and a delegation of Singaporean businessmen - noted he last visited Xiamen in 1980, when he accompanied then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to the city as Minister for Trade and Industry.

Since then, the city has undergone 'very good developments', he noted.

Fujian is a relative 'late-comer in China' in terms of economic growth, affected by tensions between China and Taiwan due to its proximity to the latter, Mr Goh said. But with warming cross-strait ties, China has plans to boost Fujian's development.

Mr Yu welcomed the interest from Singapore investors and pledged that the same incentives other Chinese provinces used to attract foreign investors would also be matched and offered in Xiamen. Links between Fujian and Singapore are already close, with about half the latter's Chinese population being Fujianese descendants.

Earlier yesterday afternoon, Mr Goh visited Xiamen University, founded by the late Singaporean philanthropist Tan Kah Kee.

-end of ST article