CHONGQING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Over the past decade, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity has emerged as a flagship project for international cooperation, successfully enhancing connectivity between China's western regions and Southeast Asia.

Marking its 10th anniversary, the initiative, launched on Nov. 7, 2015, stands as the third major inter-governmental collaboration between China and Singapore, following the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park in east China and China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City in north China.

A press conference held on Monday highlighted five key achievements covering trade, financing, data, air connectivity and people-to-people exchanges -- as major steps in boosting connectivity.

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, for example, has become a logistics artery for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As of the end of October, it had connected to 581 ports in 127 countries and regions, helping drive total trade value between western China and ASEAN to over 1 trillion yuan (about 141 billion U.S. dollars) -- a remarkable increase of 75.3 percent since its launch.

Facilitating capital flow for the BRI, a cross-border financing corridor has, meanwhile, catalyzed a cumulative cross-border financing value of 21.7 billion U.S. dollars over the past decade.

People-to-people exchanges have also been boosted along with bilateral trade. Official data shows the Chongqing-Singapore air route had witnessed a passenger volume of 252,400 trips in 2024 -- a surge of 237.3 percent year on year, according to Sun Xiyong, deputy director of the Chongqing Commerce Commission. The two sides have also become major tourist destinations for their respective citizens, with themed cultural events developing into signature exchange platforms.

"Differing from the Suzhou and Tianjin projects, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative is distinctively defined by enhancing connectivity, driving development in western China and pioneering institutional innovation," said Li An, deputy head of the department of Asian affairs of the Ministry of Commerce. "It is not merely a flagship Belt and Road project for China and Singapore -- but has become a vital platform for the inland west to go global."■