Accelerating the promotion of high-level opening up with the focus on service trade is an objective requirement for my country to build a new development pattern, and it is also an important driving force for my country's economic transformation and upgrading and the release of the huge domestic demand potential of 1.4 billion people. Judging from the actual situation, Hainan Free Trade Port and Singapore have huge potential for economic and trade cooperation focusing on trade in services, which will have an important impact on the formation of a regional service market.
In 2008, my country signed a free trade agreement with Singapore, which was the first free trade agreement signed between my country and an Asian country. Over the past 10 years, bilateral economic and trade relations have developed rapidly. The Sino-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, and the Sino-Singapore New Land-Sea Corridor are examples of cooperation projects between China and Singapore. According to statistics, as of 2020, Chinese enterprises have enjoyed a total of 56.5 billion yuan in imports under the China-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, and have received a tax reduction of 11.4 billion yuan; under the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, they have accumulated benefits in imports from Singapore. 398.41 billion yuan, 26.67 billion yuan in tax concessions. At the end of 2019, the "Protocol between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of Singapore on Upgrading the Free Trade Agreement" officially came into effect, which upgraded six areas including service trade. In the next few years, under the background that RCEP is about to be fully implemented, the economic and trade cooperation between China and New Zealand will be further strengthened.
Singapore has become my country's sixth largest service trading partner. In recent years, my country’s service trade has entered a period of rapid development, and the scale of service trade has expanded rapidly. The proportion of service trade in total foreign trade has shown an upward trend. According to statistics, from 2010 to 2019, my country’s service trade volume has increased from US$371.74 billion to 7850. Billion US dollars, the proportion of total foreign trade increased from 11.1% to 14.6%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points. As an important global trade center, shipping center, and financial center, Singapore is the world's tenth largest service trading country. It has global competitiveness in industries such as biomedicine, precision engineering, electronics, finance, shipping, and services. In the first three quarters of 2019, the bilateral service trade volume between China and Singapore reached US$14.9 billion. Singapore remains China’s sixth largest service trade partner and third largest service export destination. It is also China’s largest service trade partner along the “Belt and Road”.
