China's President Xi Jinping is dropping into Singapore Friday for a two-day state visit with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
In addition to marking the 25th anniversary of the two nations establishing diplomatic relations, here are items likely to top the agenda.
Trade
China and Singapore will start negotiations on upgrading their free-trade agreement (FTA), Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
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Singapore's services sector is likely to be among the potential beneficiaries of an FTA upgrade, as the city-state's manufacturing exports to China already enjoy low tariffs, Credit Suisse (Swiss Exchange: CSGN-CH) said in a note Wednesday, adding that any deal may be a "testbed" for China on whether to join more comprehensive regional trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
It's certainly a big deal for the tiny city-state: China is Singapore's largest trading partner and accounts for 5.9 percent of Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP), Credit Suisse noted.
Liberalizing China's currency
More initiatives to liberalize China's currency, the renminbi (Exchange:CNY=), will likely be on the cards, Credit Suisse said.
"Outside of Hong Kong, Singapore has been a major anchor for offshore renminbi activities, which is likely to continue to expand going forward," the bank said.
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It expects the city-state's banks to benefit, both from more renminbi-based trade and capital markets activity coming through Singapore. The banks are also likely to benefit from providing infrastructure funding under China's "One Belt, One Road" development strategy. That's aimed at recreating the Silk Road land and maritime trade routes, and China has already committed around $40 billion to the related infrastructure needs.
Development projects in China
The two nations will discuss a third government-to-government development project in Western China, Singapore's foreign ministry said. Education cooperation and urban management will also be on the agenda, the ministry said. Singapore is well recognized for its efficient management of government services - it's topped the World Bank's ease of doing business survey for a decade - and the city-state often exports its know-how to regional nations.
Credit Suisse expects the third government-to-government project will be in Chongqing, noting that the previous projects were the Suzhou Industrial Park, from 1994, and the Tianjin Eco-City, from 2008. Tianjin Eco-City is a 30-square-kilometer urban project 40km from the Tianjin city center; it's expected to eventually have a population of 350,000, with the development expected to take 10-15 years. The site previously was mainly barren land and polluted water bodies, according to its website.
The nearly nearly 300-square-kilometer Suzhou Industrial Park, located near Shanghai's financial area, hosts operations for several multi-national corporations, including Samsung, contributing around 15 percent of the city's economy as well as housing around 5.2 percent of Shanghai's population, according to at Straits Times report.
An agreement on the third project could expedite a joint-venture deal between Singapore's Sembcorp Industries (Singapore Exchange: SCIL-SG) and Chongqing Energy Investment to acquire an existing coal-fired power plant there and jointly develop an adjacent one, Credit Suisse said.
Acting as the Switzerland of Southeast Asia
Singapore is brokering a historic meeting between China's Xi and Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, marking the first talks between leaders of the neighboring nations in more than six decades.
China views Taiwan as a renegade province that it could reclaim by force if necessary. In 1949, after a long civil war, Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China government lost control of the mainland to the communist party and fled to Taiwan, to rule the island as a government in exile.
China and Taiwan both requested that Singapore host the cross-strait talks, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Wednesday, noting that the city-state had also hosted the 1993 Wang-Koo talks. Those talks between two non-governmental organizations were the highest-level cross-straits meetings since 1949, with agreements signed to promote trade and other exchanges.
The orchids
Continuing one of the island nation's long-standing traditions, Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, will have an orchid hybrid named for them. Singapore is the world's largest exporter of orchids.
-Huileng Tan and John W. Schoen contributed to this article.
Conditions for Remission
Under the respective FTAs, Nationals or Permanent Residents of the following countries will be accorded the same Stamp Duty treatment as Singapore Citizens:
Nationals and Permanent Residents of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland
Nationals of the United States of America
https://www.iras.gov.sg/irashome/Oth...ements--FTAs-/
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