Singapore and China held a meeting of the Singapore-China Joint Committee for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) in Tianjin on December 7 to further advance cooperation between the two countries.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Singapore Huang Xuncai revealed at the meeting that on the basis of the increasing number of flights between Singapore and China, the two sides will strengthen personnel exchanges between the two countries through 30-day mutual visa waiver arrangement.

According to the report, Huang Xuncai also said that this year's JCBC meeting, held in the context of the global economy facing headwinds, rising geopolitical uncertainties, global warming, the two countries to join hands and strengthen cooperation under the turmoil, has become more important.

Huang Xuncai said that while consolidating cooperation in traditional areas such as trade and investment, Singapore and China are also expanding and deepening cooperation in new areas, including digital and green economy, and integrating sustainable solutions in development. The two countries are also cooperating in areas such as financial connectivity, food security and smart cities.

Underpinning these cooperation projects, he added, are people-to-people exchanges, which are increasing and flights between the two places have increased to close to pre-pandemic levels.

"We hope to reach pre-pandemic levels and even exceed them on direct flights."

This progress will also be supported by the 30-day visa waiver arrangement between our two countries, which will strengthen the cornerstone of our bilateral relationship by enabling greater people-to-people exchanges." Huang Xuncai was quoted as saying.

After the news was released, the popularity of Singapore travel search rose rapidly.

According to the same travel data, as of 14:00 on the same day, Singapore's tourism attention increased by 18% compared with the same period the previous day, among which Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and other provinces and cities concerned about Singapore-related tourism information users are the most.

According to the Qunar Index, the Singapore search index on December 7 increased four times from the previous week.

On the Qunar platform, direct flights between Beijing and Singapore in December cost 1,200 yuan, Shanghai - Singapore 950 yuan and Guangzhou - Singapore 860 yuan. At the same time, searches for Universal Studios Singapore tickets on Qunar's platform increased 40% month-on-month.

Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher of the Tongcheng Research Institute, analyzed that the arrival of the visa exemption policy between China and New Zealand will be another important benefit for the entry-exit travel market.

Singapore has always been an important business travel and tourist holiday destination for Chinese citizens, and the mutual visa exemption policy will further stimulate the enthusiasm of Chinese tourists to travel to Singapore.

After the official landing of Singapore's visa-free policy for Chinese citizens, it will connect with Malaysia and Thailand to form a new Malaysia-Thailand visa-free golden line.

Xiao Peng, a researcher at the Big Data Research Institute of Where to Go, said that Singapore and Malaysia are located in tropical areas, and are expected to become popular destinations for the Spring Festival driven by the visa-free policy.