December 16, 2025
CHONGQING – Singapore and China announced a record 27 deals after top-level talks on Dec 15, including a pilot scheme to let Singaporean tourists use digital renminbi in China.
Starting in December, the Singapore branches of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Bank of China (BOC) will roll out the pilot in phases, enabling customers to open and top up digital renminbi wallets.
Digital renminbi payments can be made in China without internet, as long as users have phones equipped with near-field communication technology. China is one of the top destinations for Singapore travellers.
The new deliverables, spanning sectors from health and food to the digital economy, come as both countries call for deeper and broader bilateral ties amid geopolitical uncertainties, rapid technological changes and economic headwinds.
Against this backdrop, “it is therefore all the more important for Singapore and China to continue to find ways to cooperate, anticipating challenges and capitalising on new opportunities”, said Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, speaking at the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC), the two countries’ apex bilateral platform.
Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang, who is Mr Gan’s co-chair for the JCBC, said in his opening remarks that despite rising global unilateralism, the relationship between China and Singapore had grown steadily, with cooperation yielding fruitful results.
The annual JCBC and related meetings are being held in 2025 in the south-western Chinese city of Chongqing to mark the 10th anniversary of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity (CCI). It is a bilateral collaboration platform aimed at strengthening connectivity between western China and South-east Asia.
After nearly three hours of talks, both leaders witnessed the announcement of 27 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and agreements. Five of the documents set out plans for the CCI’s next decade, extending cooperation to new areas such as healthcare, education, green finance and digital trade, while building on its four initial areas of collaboration – financial services, aviation, transport and logistics, and information and communications technology.
Speaking at a wrap-up interview with Singapore media after the JCBC meetings, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo pointed to how “the most significant achievement of the CCI (is) the CCI-New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor”, an offshoot of the initiative.
The trade corridor, also known as the CCI-ILSTC, is a rail-and-sea multimodal transport route that moves cargo to and from Chongqing, Singapore and beyond, providing linkages that have “strategic value”, Mrs Teo said.
Chongqing is a major logistics hub in China that has trade linkages to Central Asia through the Xinjiang autonomous region and is located along China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt, which encompasses 11 provinces and accounts for about half of the country’s population and economic output.
Cargo volumes along the CCI-ILSTC grew 15 per cent between 2022 and 2024.
According to the latest announcements on Dec 15, expansion plans for the CCI in its next decade of growth include supporting the digital and green development of the CCI-ILSTC, such as the use of carbon tracking along the trade corridor, and the sharing of information on digital and data policies between Singapore and China.
Pointing to the latest upgraded trade pact between ASEAN and China signed in October, Mrs Teo said: “Economic integration as a backdrop provides us with exciting imperatives in terms of advancing this development of the CCI-ILSTC.”
The upgraded free trade pact between ASEAN and China covers areas such as the digital and green economies as well as supply chain connectivity.
Mrs Teo also told Singapore media that the China (Chongqing)-Singapore Information Communication Media Joint Innovation Development Fund to support innovation projects from companies in Singapore and Chongqing will be given a boost as part of the latest collaborations.
The fund will be raised to 100 million yuan (S$18.3 million), up from the initial 40 million yuan, Mrs Teo said. “It is a sizeable expansion of the fund, and it reflects the kind of confidence that the leaders on both sides have (over) joint projects between companies in Singapore as well as companies in Chongqing, working together to take advantage of the good opportunities that are emerging in various fields,” she added.
DPM Gan, during the wrap-up interview, noted the new initiatives that had come out of the Monetary Authority of Singapore working with the People’s Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
These include appointing DBS Bank as Singapore’s second renminbi clearing bank, after the ICBC; supporting the secondary listings of A-share Chinese companies on the Singapore Exchange; and the starting of the over-the-counter bond market arrangement through the BOC and DBS.
Mr Gan said that these initiatives – and the pilot programme to allow Singapore travellers to use the digital renminbi – will “deepen financial connectivity between Singapore and China (and) boost Singapore’s status as a financial hub”.
He said the digital renminbi pilot between Singapore and China will “make payment even more convenient for tourists visiting China”.
For now, a popular payment option among Singapore travellers to China is the use of digital wallets such as Alipay or WeChat Pay.
These e-wallets must be linked to users’ international bank cards or credit cards and require identity verification. Single transactions that are above 200 yuan incur a 3 per cent charge.
Payment options in China specific to Singapore include a tie-up between OCBC Bank and Alipay, as well as a partnership between Changi Airport and fintech company Liquid Group that also works through Alipay. These options avoid transaction fees, as they charge users in Singapore dollars.
DBS China chief executive Ginger Cheng told The Straits Times that being part of the CCI has helped the bank expand its share of China’s offshore bond market, including issuing the first offshore renminbi bond under the initiative.
DBS used CCI’s cross-border investment channels to lead or participate in 44 offshore bank issuances totalling 57.3 billion yuan, involving clients from Chongqing and neighbouring provinces such as Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi, she said.
Other agreements include a protocol between Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment and China’s General Administration of Customs to facilitate the export of processed meat from Singapore manufacturers to China
The Ministry of Health also signed an MOU with China’s National Health Commission to work closer together in areas such as the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases; healthy ageing and aged care policy; and women’s and children’s health.
Another MOU was inked between the Ministry of Law and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade to cooperate in international commercial dispute resolution, intellectual property management, legal support for the growth of digital and green economies, and international trade policies and compliance.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and China, commemorated by a series of high-level exchanges, including reciprocal visits by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
DPM Gan, who is also Minister for Trade and Industry, is on his second work visit to China in four months.
Besides discussing bilateral cooperation, he and Mr Ding also discussed regional developments. DPM Gan reaffirmed that Singapore has consistently abided by the “one China” policy, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Singapore’s investments in Chongqing have doubled from US$5.7 billion in 2015 to US$12.7 billion (S$16.4 billion) in 2024. Trade between Chongqing and Singapore, its largest investor, also grew 15.5 per cent in 2024 from a year ago.
Additional reporting by Kok Yufeng