By Ronnie Harui

Singapore and China plan to expand and strengthen financial cooperation via new initiatives such as a bond platform linkage and an exchange traded fund connect between the two countries, Singapore's central bank said.

Among the new initiatives, Singapore Exchange Ltd. and China Foreign Exchange Trade System are in talks to set up connectivity between their bond-trading platforms, which will enable greater investor access to China's bond market, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Also, Singapore Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an ETF link to enable eligible fund managers to offer ETF products to investors in each other's markets.

In addition, Asia Pacific Futures is the first Singapore company to become an overseas special brokerage participant of the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, the MAS said. This will allow Singapore-based investors to directly trade internationalized onshore commodity products via the company, facilitating international participation and price discovery in China's commodity derivatives markets, the central bank added.

Singapore's central bank and the People's Bank of China will explore deeper public-private sector collaboration in green finance, especially in key areas such as taxonomies and green financial technology, the MAS said. Clearer definitions for classifying economic activities will help catalyze greater financing flows to green and transition projects in Asia, it added.

Write to Ronnie Harui at ronnie.harui@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

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