Wang Rong, Executive Member of CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee, and Yan Li, Mayor of Suzhou, met Mr. Yip Wei Kiat, newly appointed Consul General of Singapore to Shanghai, and other Singaporean friends on separate occasions on March 24, with the presence of municipal leader Wang Jinhua.

Wang Rong expressed warm welcome to Mr. Yip Wei Kiat's visit and congratulations on his appointment of new post. He said: "China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park has in recent years achieved marked progress in planning and management, industrial development, and talent training, gathered valuable experience and set an example for various development zones in China. Now SIP is faced with the task of speeding up structural innovation, optimizing industrial levels, promoting tertiary industry and reinforce technological innovation. We expect support from Singapore in these fields." Wang told the guests that Suzhou would make consistent efforts to enhance the cooperation between the two sides. In his meeting with guests from Singapore, Mayor Yan Li said that through the close cooperation between the two sides and in the sound development of SIP in the past 14 years, we had benefited much from the management concepts and training of cadres. He hoped that the two sides would make concerted efforts and extend the successful cooperation into wider fields.

Mr. Yip Wei Kiat spoke highly of the new changes in Suzhou since his last visit two years ago and expressed that the experience of SIP in development and construction was worth learning by the two sides, and hoped that closer relations of cooperation would be established in the future. He assured the hosts of his devotion to the ever-growing cooperation between the two sides.

Present at the meetings was Ling Min, Director of Municipal Foreign Affairs Office.