An impressive view of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Multimodal Transportation Demonstration Base, located in the Liangjiang New Area, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality. [Photo/Visual Chongqing]

The 2022 Chongqing·Singapore Experience Week kicked off on Oct 29 in Chongqing – with locals experiencing the country's unique charms through a series of stimulating and exciting activities.

This is the first time Chongqing is hosting the week, underscoring its ever-expanding exchanges with Singapore in terms of commerce and trading and culture.

The benefits from its ever-expanding links with Singapore have been emerging since the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity was announced. The initiative is known as the third major collaboration project between the Chinese and Singaporean governments that focuses on four areas – finance, the aerospace sector, logistics and information.

In the wake of seven years after the implementation of the initiative, a total of 218 governmental and business cooperation programs involving $25.26 billion were established and 235 financial service projects worth $29.04 billion were also carried out.

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor for the western region of China is a key measure for Chongqing to open up to the world. It is also considered another successful example of Chongqing-Singapore cooperation.

A large amount of work has been done by governments of Singapore, Chongqing municipality and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region to open the corridor, whose construction in 2019 was recognized as a national endeavor.

Statistics from the Chongqing Commerce Commission have suggested that Singapore has become one of Chongqing's primary foreign investment sources since then. By the end of December last year, Singapore had set up 354 projects in the municipality, bringing in $7.64 billion in foreign funds.