Singapore and China agreed on new schemes to strengthen financial cooperation during the 10th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) held in the island city on October 22.

The meeting was co-chaired by Teo Chee Hean, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security, and Minister for Home Affairs, and Zhang Gaoli, Vice Premier of the State Council of China, who is on a working visit to Singapore from October 21-23.

Under the agreement, China will extend its Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) programme to Singapore , with an aggregate quota of 50 billion RMB.

This will allow qualified Singapore-based institutional investors to channel offshore RMB from Singapore into China ’s securities markets and allow qualified Chinese institutional investors to use RMB to invest in Singapore ’s capital markets.

New measures are being studied to allow cross-border flows of RMB between Singapore and Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) as well as Tianjin Eco-City (TEC).

Also at the meeting, Singapore and China announced that relevant agencies are in discussions to facilitate China-incorporated companies which have received regulatory approval to list directly in Singapore , instead of through entities incorporated outside China .

The two countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in banking regulatory issues, through exchanges and dialogues on topics of shared interest, and enhanced coordination on international regulatory issues.

During his three-day visit to Singapore, the Chinese Vice Premier will meet President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.-VNA