On April 1, witnessed by Premier Li Qiang of the State Council and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, and Yan Jinyong, Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore, jointly signed the "Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore on Announcing the Substantial Completion of China- The Memorandum of Understanding on the Upgraded Follow-up Negotiations of the Singapore Free Trade Agreement confirms the substantive completion of the follow-up negotiations on the upgraded free trade agreement between the two countries. The teams of both parties will continue the follow-up work such as text legal review and translation, perform their respective domestic procedures, and sign the agreement as soon as possible.

　　This agreement is the first time that my country has adopted the negative list model to make service and investment opening commitments in the practice of free trade agreements. On the basis of the original upgraded agreement, the two sides further increased the level of commitment to service trade and investment opening, added a chapter on telecommunications, and incorporated high-level economic and trade rules such as national treatment, market access, transparency, and digital economy. The two sides also jointly confirmed that the liberalization measures in the field of service trade and investment will not be withdrawn, and promised each other to "open the door wider and wider" in the form of an agreement. The agreement is an important measure and practical action for my country to connect with high-standard international economic and trade rules and expand opening up to the outside world. It will effectively promote China-New Zealand economic and trade cooperation to a new level.

　　In 2008, China and Singapore signed a free trade agreement. In 2018, the two sides signed an agreement to upgrade the Free Trade Zone to improve the level of rules in areas such as trade facilitation, rules of origin, economic and technological cooperation, and e-commerce. In December 2020, the two sides upgraded the agreement again and launched follow-up negotiations to promote further liberalization of service trade and investment between the two sides based on the negative list model.