国内英语新闻:Chinese premier eyes fresh joint project with Singapore

BEIJING, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Friday that China and Singapore should work on a new inter-government cooperation project in China.

In a meeting with visiting Singaporean President Tony Tan Keng Yam, Li expressed the hope that on the basis of the two existing cooperation, China and Singapore have a third in western China.

The two existing projects are the Suzhou Industrial Park in east China's Jiangsu province and Tianjin Eco-City in north China's port city Tianjin.

Li also hoped that the two countries would consider upgrading the China-Singapore free trade zone.

Li said China supports the ASEAN community in terms of politics, security, economy, society and culture. China is ready to work with the Singapore for growth of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership.

Tan said Singapore is ready to adapt to new momentum in bilateral relations by continuously adding new ways and areas to their cooperation, hoping that the two countries would accelerate the development of the new inter-government cooperation project.

Tan said Singapore is willing to play an active role in advancing ASEAN-China relations within the ASEAN framework.

Li said China and Singapore are friendly neighbors and cooperation partners. He said the successful talks that Chinese President Xi Jinping held with Tan will strongly advance bilateral links.

The Chinese side is ready to plan and develop bilateral relations with a strategic and long-term perspective, Li said.

Li pointed out that Chinese economy has maintained a stable growth in the first half of this year. He said positive factors are on the rise, with economy picking up speed, industrial structure being optimized and potential for future growth enhanced.

Li said in order to promote stable improvement of the economy, the Chinese government will continue to pursue a steady macro-economic policy, tune up precise-target policy tools and in the meantime, actively advance a new round of opening up drive with international capacity cooperation as the pivotal point.

He said China will strive to enhance the driving forces and efficiency of growth through expanding win-win cooperation with the outside world.