国内英语新闻:Singapore inks 2.3 bln USD projects with China's Zhejiang province

SINGAPORE, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Agreements on 15 projects worth over 3 billion Singapore dollars (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) were signed at the 10th Singapore-Zhejiang Economic and Trade Council meeting held here, trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said on Monday.

The 15 agreements and memoranda of understanding cover areas such as education, environmental services, financial services, marine economy development and social management. There are also two collaboration projects in social management, urban management and modern services, which will be developed on a commercially- viable basis.

Singapore's actual investments in Zhejiang, a coastal province in eastern China, reached 322 million U.S. dollars in the first nine months of this year, according to the Department of Commerce of the Zhejiang provincial government. As of October, the cumulative actual investments amounted to 4.14 billion U.S. dollars in 1,063 projects.

In the first nine months, bilateral trade increased 8.4 percent to hit 3.79 billion U.S. dollars.

China is Singapore's top trading partner while Singapore is China's largest country investor. Trade and economic cooperation council meetings have been held between Singapore and some of the provinces in China.