Singapore's monetary authority opens office in Beijing

SINGAPORE - The Monetary Authority of Singapore said Tuesday it officially opened its representative office in Beijing.

It is the central bank's third overseas representative office, after its offices in London and New York.

The authority said the new representative office will help further strengthen bilateral collaboration between it and the People's Bank of China and other Chinese financial authorities.

"MAS sees great value in establishing a physical presence in Beijing to facilitate future cooperation and regular interactions. We look forward to leverage on this milestone collaboration to deepen our financial and economic cooperation and take our bilateral relations to new heights," said Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is also the chairman of the authority.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the Chinese central bank, was the guest of honor at the opening ceremony.

China and Singapore have been important partners to each other in economy and trade. Bilateral trade between China and Singapore grew by 8.7 percent year on year to $69.3 billion in 2012 amid the challenging global economic environment, according to official statistics from China.

Many Singapore companies grew significantly by expanding their operations in China, while China benefited from the management expertise brought by Singapore firms.

Chinese banking giant ICBC kicked off its yuan clearing bank services on Monday in Singapore, making the city state the only country outside China to have a yuan clearing bank. Chinese banks ICBC and Bank of China were both granted qualifying full bank licenses last year.