Singapore will explore opportunities arising from Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis megaproject and its coming five-year development plan, the city state’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has said, highlighting that relations between both economies are “more important than ever” in a fragmenting world.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Friday that Wong’s visit – his first official trip to Hong Kong since becoming prime minister in 2024 – was indicative of the strong ties and friendship between the two jurisdictions and hoped that enhanced cooperation could achieve “win-win” outcomes.

The South China Morning Post learned that the Development Bureau arranged for Wong to visit the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Northern Metropolis on Friday afternoon.

In their meeting at Government House on Friday, both leaders highlighted shared beliefs, such as free trade and multilateralism, rather than the differences that often cast the two financial hubs as bitter regional rivals.

Wong said during the meeting that competition between the two jurisdictions was “healthy” and that good relations were “more important than ever in a world that is becoming more fragmented and where barriers are going up”.

“I’d like very much to hear and learn about some of these new developments, your five-year plans, your Northern Metropolis developments, which you also told me about the last time we had a meeting, and I would like to see what Hong Kong is doing and how Singapore can participate in some of these opportunities too,” he told Lee.

Wong was apparently referring to both Beijing’s 15th five-year plan approved by the National People’s Congress earlier this month and Hong Kong’s planned local equivalent.