DPM Gan Kim Yong at the Q&A Segment for the Media Wrap-up of the 21st Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation in Chongqing, China

CNA: There were 27 agreements that were signed and exchanged between Singapore and China today; it is the highest number of MOUs ever signed at the JCBC. So firstly, what does this signify for both countries, and what does this mean for Singaporeans? How does this benefit Singaporeans? What is in it for them?

DPM Gan Kim Yong: Thank you very much. I think it is very important question, but I should always remind ourselves that we should not measure collaboration by the number of MOUs we signed; it is more the quality rather than the quantity. Although we have a very high number of MOUs being signed between the two countries during this meeting. It covers a wide-ranging topic of collaboration, as I mentioned, ranging from economics – in fact, it goes beyond economics – it also covers people-to-people exchange. It covers the cultural exchange as well as student exchange. We also talk about education collaboration, sports as well. So I think it is a very wide-ranging area. This is truly reflective of the 高质量全方位前瞻性的伙伴关系.

So this is really an all-round, high-quality and future-oriented partnership. So I think this will benefit the many of our Singaporeans, both businesses as well as people. eCNY, for example, will provide convenience for Singaporean tourists who are coming here; they can use eCNY directly pay for things that they purchase and consume. And then we also have businesses; we have exchanges in the financial collaboration, financial sector. So I think investors would be interested. We also have talked about the collaboration on the various G-to-G projects. This will provide opportunities for many of our businesses to expand their investments to China. So I think this is the many areas that we have been working together. We also talked about energy. We talked about science and technology. So I think these are the new opportunities have opened up with the collaboration with the 27 MOUs that we signed today.

The Straits Times:  How does this year's JCBC, do you think in your experience, compare with last year, when you first hosted them in Singapore, in terms of exchange, do you feel like there was there more chemistry between you and Mr Ding?

DPM Gan: Last year was my first JCBC co-chair with Vice Premier Ding. This is my second time. It is a bit like the old friends getting together again, meeting each other. I think it is a continuation of a very strong partnership between the two of us. But the partnership goes beyond just personal comfort and personal relationship. It is also built on the trust and understanding that we have evolved, we have developed over the last 35 years. As I mentioned, we are commemorating 35 years of diplomatic relations between China and Singapore. So I think it is this whole journey of working together, growing together, developing together, and building trust and understanding with each other generation after generation that has culminated in today's collaboration. So I think it is not just within the two of us, but for many years of hard work and also my colleagues who are with me today and they have also contributed significantly to forging this cooperation, because at the end of the day, we are two different countries, our priorities, our interests, our focus are different, but we continue to find areas of common interest, and that we are able to work together for the mutual benefit of our businesses and our people. So I think that is important driving force behind the collaboration.

AsiaOne: For China, it has been trying to, or rather, it has been filling up some of the vacuum or gaps left by US not filling certain roles, although some in a very indirect way. Now China is not lacking in terms of partnership, so how does Singapore continue to sell ourselves apart, in the midst of these options that China has to be a useful and wanted partner.

DPM Gan: Thank you very much, I think both China and US are important to Singapore, and we are strong partners between the two of them, and China is one of our largest trading partner, whereas US is our largest investor. So I think both relationships are very important to us, and we continue to find ways to work with both despite the contestation between China and US. We do want to do business with China, and we want to do continue to do business with US, and we explain to both of them in the same way. And between China and Singapore, we continue to find areas that we can work together that will be mutually beneficial.

And these 27 MOUs that we signed today is a reflection of the ability for us to continue to find it useful to engage one another, to work together, and to find opportunities to develop and grow together. And that opportunities as I emphasise is not just on economics, but also beyond economics, and extend to people-to-people, cultural, sports youth and so on. So I think there are many areas that we can work together – AI is one area that we talked about and I think I can ask Minister Josephine Teo to elaborate on the collaboration that we are working together on the developing AI capability, as well as AI governance, so that it will benefit both Singapore and China.

Minister Josephine Teo: Thank you very much DPM Gan. Friends from the media, as you know, as a result of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong meeting with President Xi Jinping on previous occasions, we initiated the digital policy dialogue between Singapore and China. The reason is because both countries see this megatrend as being very important in terms of reshaping our economies as well as our societies. We are both looking at how we can make full use of technologies to uplift our peoples, but yet at the same time, strengthening the guardrails and China has been very forward leaning in thinking about what are the appropriate changes to the governance measures that they put in place – whether this is in the specific areas of AI implementation, or in the broader context of digitalisation where data is also an important subject matter. China for example, from some years back already identified data itself as a factor of production.

Given how forward leaning it is in thinking about digitalisation issues and how the governance approaches needs to be updated, we thought it would be a very meaningful exercise for Singapore and China to engage each other, to share our own perspectives on the sound approaches in governing digital domain and also what we are thinking of in terms of strengthening the guardrails. In Singapore's case, where AI is concerned, we have focused on building up our capabilities in testing, as well as in terms of addressing the risks that are specifically identified.

We had some time ago set up the AI Verify Foundation, which has crowded in nearly 200 different organisations, to put into practice the framework that was established around risk management, as well as the specific measures that companies can take when they implement AI models. China also sees this as an interesting experience that they would like to gain more understanding of. The digital policy dialogue mechanism allows us to explore these topics, but even before we get into AI, there was a lot that we can talk about where data is concerned. So cross-border data flows – what are the right ways of ensuring that it does take place, whilst ensuring that security concerns of the data-exchanging entities are properly taken into account – I think those are the areas that we will continue to engage each other on.

DPM Gan: Thank you. Another good example, let me just quickly give an example, CCI is actually a very good example of value-adding, we visited the Multimodal Distribution Centre this afternoon after lunch. Over lunch, Vice Premier Ding was sharing with me that this is a very important illustrative project. You can imagine that Chongqing is an inland city, it was very difficult to imagine how Chongqing can become a gateway for cross-border trading with the neighbouring countries.

This afternoon or this morning, we saw a launch of train services from Chongqing to Central Asia, into Southeast Asia. This is an illustration how we could leverage on the logistics and supply chain capability to turn Chongqing from an inland city to a gateway for the trading with the neighbouring nations. This is also where Singapore's strength is – Singapore has always been a hub for trading, for shipping, for logistics and supply chain. This is how two countries coming together will turn Chongqing CCI into a demonstration project.

This is what we call, used to say, this is a pathfinder project; they show the way how we can break out of the constraints a city like Chongqing faces.

Minister Teo: If I can just add quickly to what DPM has said. ILSTC is a physical project, and so it talks about how we can break through the physical constraints. The digital ILSTC builds on this. It has been decided that this project will be engaged upon by Singapore, IMDA, as well as two entities in China, one at the Chongqing level, as well as another at the state level, which is the National Data Administration (NDA).

This type of trilateral is very unusual. Usually it would be, between an NDA equivalent with Singapore or the Chongqing equivalent to Singapore. But when you have three parties coming together, I think it speaks to the confidence that the NDA has – that because you have been a pathfinder in the physical sense, you can also be a pathfinder in the digital sense. The teams that are working together on this, have demonstrated that they have trust within this Cooperation Framework and they can discuss issues candidly. This is another example of how we can jointly find new ways forward better, that will work well for both our businesses and our people.