Singapore and China should explore new areas of cooperation in artificial intelligence and the green economy as their economic relationship enters a new phase, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister
Singapore and China should explore new areas of cooperation in artificial intelligence and the green economy as their economic relationship enters a new phase, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Friday. Gan, who is also trade minister, said the partnership had “never been static” and should continue to adapt as economic priorities change.
Source: South China
Speaking at the FutureChina Global Forum in Singapore, Gan pointed to the countries’ earlier joint projects as examples of how their relationship has evolved. He said the Suzhou Industrial Park, launched in 1994, supported China’s industrial development while creating opportunities for Singapore companies. The Tianjin Eco-City, launched in 2008, focused on sustainable urban development, while the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, launched in 2015, brought together Singapore’s strengths in modern services with Chongqing’s links to western China and global markets.
Gan’s comments suggest that AI and green industries could become the next major areas of cooperation after decades of collaboration through industrial parks, urban development and transport projects.
He said the economic challenges of each period had shaped the countries’ flagship projects, making it necessary for the partnership to keep moving into new sectors where both sides can use their respective strengths.
Singapore and China wouldn’t be the first two countries to formalize an AI partnership, and looking at how others have done it shows how much the framing shapes what the partnership is actually for. France and India declared 2026 the “Year of India-France Innovation,” with France’s AI envoy describing the goal as building AI that reflects each country’s own culture and languages, rather than defaulting to models built around a handful of dominant markets.
France went further with India’s strategic upgrade in February 2026, explicitly branding their joint approach to AI a “Third Way,” positioned as distinct from both American corporate dominance and Chinese state control of the technology. France also struck a separate AI agreement with the UAE, backing a consortium building a 1 gigawatt AI data centre on French soil, framed around closing the global digital divide and building more sustainable AI infrastructure.
What stands out across these deals is that none of them are primarily about money changing hands, they’re about two countries agreeing on what kind of AI they want to build together and whose values it should reflect, which makes the “Third Way” framing a bit ironic here, since any Singapore-China AI partnership would involve one of the very two poles that framing was built to avoid.
The green economy half of this pitch isn’t happening in isolation either, China has been rapidly deepening clean energy ties across Southeast Asia already.
Countries in the region spent more than 20 billion dollars on Chinese made clean tech in the first seven months of 2026 alone, a 50% jump from the year before, making Southeast Asia China’s largest clean tech market in Asia, ahead of both Europe and North America. Indonesia alone struck 22.6 billion dollars in green deals with China over the past two years, covering electric vehicles, lithium batteries and solar products, while the Philippines saw its Chinese solar imports roughly triple in the first quarter of 2026 compared to a year earlier.
Chinese solar panels specifically made up 4.1 billion dollars of that regional total, nearly 90% higher than the year before. That scale of activity means Singapore isn’t approaching China as a green economy newcomer or a special case, it’s stepping into a partnership China has already been building at high volume with its immediate neighbors, and the real question for Singapore is less whether China will engage and more what makes its version of that cooperation distinct from the trade dominated deals already running next door.
Meanwhile, Singapore is having two very different conversations about AI. The government is pushing businesses and public agencies to use AI more, while the country’s financial regulator is warning about the risks behind the investment boom.
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