to reach usd 2. 2 billion in 2015. in particular, financial cooperation between both countries has thrived. in september this year, president xi jinping met pm lee hsien loong at the side - lines of the g20 meetings in hangzhou. both leaders noted the positive progress achieved in the latest government - togovernment ( g - to - g ) project in chongqing. financial cooperation was highlighted as an area that has made strong headway. china and singapore also achieved several new financial cooperation milestones in 2016. i would now like to highlight the key initiatives that both sides 1 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches have delivered this year : first, singapore took key measures to deepen our commitment to china ’ s markets : in january this year, mas was amongst the first group of central banks and sovereign wealth funds to sign up to participate in china ’ s inter - bank foreign exchange market. in addition, the third china - singapore government - to - government project was launched in chongqing. in june this year, mas announced the inclusion of rmb investments as part of singapore ’ s official foreign reserves. this was done in recognition of the steady and calibrated liberalisation of china ’ s financial markets, and the growing acceptance of rmb assets in the global portfolio of institutional investors. second, we have strengthened supervisory cooperation : in april, the inaugural china securities regulatory commission ( csrc ) – mas supervisory roundtable was held to exchange views and perspectives on supervision of capital markets activities. in july this year, the china insurance regulatory commission ( circ ) and mas organised our first exchange session to facilitate deeper bilateral discussions in the area of insurance. third, we continued to broaden financial cooperation : in march, the existing cross - border rmb initiatives in suzhou industrial park and tianjin eco - city were expanded to the cities of suzhou, tianjin and chongqing. in july, mas ’ managing director mr ravi menon hosted the singapore - china ( chongqing ) financial conference. the event saw a good response of more than 400 participants. built upon a bedrock of strong financial cooperation ties, the shanghai – singapore partnership has flourished over the years. i foresee that our partnership will receive a boost under a more dynamic asian financial landscape. ii. evolving new asian financial landscape 8 many observers have expressed their opinion that in recent years, a gradual shifting of the world ’ s economic centre of gravity to asia has taken place. with the shift, many expect a new asian financial

on singapore ’ s role as a regional infrastructure - financing hub in asean to jointly access infrastructure opportunities in the region. additionally, both financial centres can work together to develop innovative capital market solutions for infrastructure projects in china, asean and in third countries. key financial institutions in china are already working closely with singapore on this front. 4 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches they have significantly scaled up their bri - related activities in singapore over the past two years. china and singapore financial institutions are tapping on each other ’ s strengths to help chinese firms “ go out ”. for example : in june 2015, bank of china ( boc ) issued four currency “ silk road ” bonds in singapore, which included a sgd 500 million tranche and a rmb 5 billion tranche. in august 2016, china construction bank ( ccb ) listed its first rmb 1 billion bri infrastructure bond on the singapore exchange ( sgx ). in september 2016, industrial and commercial bank of china ( icbc ) signed an agreement with the singapore exchange ( sgx ) to support chinese companies looking to list equities or bonds on sgx. both parties will also explore collaboration in derivatives trading, bond trading and market making of rmb - denominated contracts listed on sgx. since november 2015, three of china ’ s top four banks ( icbc, ccb and boc ) have signed mous with international enterprise singapore to deepen bri partnerships in asean. these mous brought in more than sgd 90 billion worth of financing for brirelated projects and to support chinese and singapore firms investing into bri countries. i am confident that opportunities abound for shanghai and singapore to deepen collaboration on this front. i believe that bri - related cooperation between both financial centres will become a distinguishing mark of the new asian financial landscape ahead. ( iii ) working together on future - ready initiatives in the area of financial technology ( fintech ) : both shanghai and singapore recognise the vital importance of harnessing new financial technologies for sustainable growth of their financial sectors. this is a critical ingredient for future - ready international financial centres in asia. shanghai is already home to some of the largest fintech firms in the world 21. it is proactively taking measures to achieve its vision of becoming a global centre of innovation, science and technology ( ist ), which will also bring synergies between the financial and ist sectors. singapore, meanwhile, is committed to building a smart financial centre where technology