Zhejiang University, famed for its engineering prowess and research strength, will be the Chinese partner of Singapore's fourth university.

It was one of four deals signed at the St Regis hotel between Singapore and China, all witnessed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chinese President Hu Jintao on November 13.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shook hands.

Dr Ng Eng Hen, Singapore’s Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defense, said: “The linkages that Singapore makes with the world are crucial in preparing Singapore for the future. The Singapore University of Technology and Design will be another node in the global network we want to build. Through collaborating with Zhejiang University, we hope to create an engine of knowledge that has trans-continental reach, and that is able to draw together and create synergies from different cultures of education and research. We believe that this will ultimately translate into innovations that will bring benefits not only to the universities, their students and their faculty, but also our respective countries and beyond.”

Details of the collaboration between SU and ZJU will be worked out before SU admits its first undergraduate intake in 2011.

The leaders, who had a meeting before the signings, also saw the inking of deals on establishing the China Cultural Centre, a civil servants exchange program, and sending two pandas to Singapore in 2011.

Hu, who went to Singapore on a three-day state visit, urged Singapore to expand on their cultural exchanges with China during his meeting with Lee, building on the momentous panda transfer and the universities' tie-up.

Like the pandas, the campus connection will kick off in 2011, when SU opens its doors to students.

Zhejiang University, located in Hangzhou, is one of the most prestigious universities in China, regularly ranked third nationally, after Beijing University and Tsinghua University.

Established in 1897 during the Qing Dynasty, the Hangzhou-based school is a comprehensive university with traditional strengths in engineering, science and medicine.

It counts physics Nobel laureate T.D. Lee, Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren and Chinese Communist Party co-founder Chen Duxiu among its alumni. In recent years, its most well-known graduate was Zhang Jun, the main designer of the Beijing Olympics torch.

The university partnership is an example of the excellent state of bilateral relations between China and Singapore, a closeness reaffirmed by Lee and Hu during their meeting.

“Both leaders agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation on all fronts, such as environmental protection, water management and human resource development,” the Singapore Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In addition to education links, the China Cultural Centre will also be set up in Hangzhou. The centre, which is the eighth worldwide and the first in southeast Asia, will showcase Chinese arts and offer classes in Mandarin, calligraphy and Chinese kungfu.

By Lucy