Photo from the 2021 China-Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative Financial Summit [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The China-Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative Financial Summit 2023 will kick off in Chongqing and Singapore both online and offline on April 20, which was announced at a news conference in Chongqing on Monday.

Themed "Charting a New Path for Financial Center Development, Creating New Impetus for Financial Opening-Up", the two-day summit will focus on national strategies for building a modern financial system and serving the Belt and Road Initiative, the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the building of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), said Ruan Lu, director of the Chongqing Municipal Financial Supervision Bureau, noting that 12 major events and nine themed events will be held during the summit.

He said that 177 attendees, including 52 foreign guests from 12 countries and regions, such as Singapore's minister for communications and information, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the head of the International Monetary Fund and representatives of international financial organizations and the central banks of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — have confirmed their participation.

This year's summit has established a guest province of honor for the first time. Sichuan province was designated. It will also invite the consuls generals of RCEP countries in Chongqing and the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan.

Governments and market entities from 12 provincial-level administrative regions in western China and from Hainan province, Zhanjiang, Guangdong province and Huaihua, Hunan province, are also be invited.

Since its inception in November 2015, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity (or Chongqing Connectivity Initiative), with Chongqing as the headquarters, launched the ILSTC project in a bid to speed up high-quality development in western China.

The summit, known as CCI-FS, has been successfully held for four consecutive years and has become an important platform to deepen financial collaboration between Chongqing and Singapore — and more broadly between western China and ASEAN.