In January 2002, in Singapore the prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Kizumi, signed Japan Singapore Economic Agreement for a New Age Partnership, which entered into force in November 30, with the prime minister of Singapore, Goh Chok Tong, to build up a closer economic connection in a wider area than trade and investment. This is the first bilateral free trade agreement for japan, and it is anticipated that economic activity between Japan and Singapore will be further promoted through the agreement.
The agreement includes more obligations than WTO Agreement on Government Procurement; GPA, in the area of goods and services procurement. To be specific, each country agreed to give suppliers in the other country more opportunity to tender by lowering the application threshold for GPA from 130,000 SDR to 100,000 SDR.