The East Asian Institute (EAI) at the National University of Singapore participated in the 20th anniversary celebration of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Republic of Singapore and the People's Republic of China in late 2010 by launching two important projects. The first was the International Conference on 20 Years of Advancing Singapore-China Relations held in May 2011 and attended by participants from government departments and agencies, the business community, and academia. The well-attended Conference succeeded in providing the participants with a better understanding of the dynamics underlying the strong economic relations existing between the two countries.

The second project is this book, Advancing Singapore- China Economic Relations, which was designed to put on permanent record the multifaceted nature of the economic cooperation and links between the two countries during the last twenty years or so. The book consists of five chapters that were originally presented at the Conference, but were all substantially revised and updated to include events happening after the Conference. The other chapters did not originate from the conference papers, but were specially commissioned for inclusion in the book. The book has been constructed in such a manner as to provide a more comprehensive chronicle of the complexity and intricacy involved in the major areas chosen by the public and private sectors to develop the economic links that have brought immense benefits to the two countries.

We would like to thank the chapter writers who have put in so much effort to prepare their conference papers for publication in this book, as well as those who have kindly agreed to write the completely new chapters at our request. Our thanks go to Mrs Triena Ong of ISEAS Publications Unit for overseeing the expeditious publication of the book. We are delighted to have ISEAS as a co-publisher.