Singapore (VNA) - Singaporeand France have agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation in areas such as spacetechnology, smart city planning, financial technology and health and biomedicalsciences.

During thehigh-level visit to Singapore by French President Francois Hollande on March26-27, the two sides also reaffirmed theirbilateral relations in traditional areas such as defence, investment and trade,culture and education, while opening up new cooperation in innovation, apriority in growth strategy of both countries. 

The two countries decided to declare 2018 as theFrance-Singapore Year of Innovation with events that encourage morecollaboration in innovation to be held in both countries. They prioritise the strengthening of their innovationecosystems, including programmes to promote research and development, andsupport entrepreneurs.

Within the framework of the visit, the France –Singapore Innovation Forum was held to boost innovation ties. Ten agreementswere signed at the forum, which are expected to pave the way for researchcollaboration in digital technology, energy and electric vehicles.

French and Singaporean agencies, companies, research organisations andinstitutions of higher learning have been working together in projects involvingnot only cutting-edge science-technology, but also in transport, urbanmanagement, nuclear safety and satellite technology.

Four more agreements were also inked, covering thefields of innovation and research collaboration, space research, renewableenergy and financial information exchange.

France is Singapore’s second largest tradepartner and sixth biggest investor. More than 1,800 French businesses and15,000 French nationals are residing and working in Singapore. -VNA