Country for PR: China
Contributor: Xinhua News Agency
Monday, November 07 2022 - 19:16
AsiaNet
China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City: Creating a New Highland of Knowledge Creation and Building a Demonstration Zone of Opening up and Cooperation
GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 7, 2022 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/ --

On November 1, the 18th China-Singapore Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation 
(JCBC) kicked off in Singapore. The meeting resulted in the signing of 19 
Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) and cooperation agreements, including the MOU 
on Developing a Cooperation Framework to Promote Singapore Companies' 
Participation in the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (CSGKS)'s 
Industrial Development and Innovation. The meeting also provided a promising 
path for the future development of the CSGKS located in the Guangdong-Hong 
Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

A commission official of CSGKS Cooperation Affairs Office said, the signing of 
the MOU will contribute the CSGKS to attract more innovative high-tech 
enterprises from Singapore and other countries, further deepen the cooperation 
with Singapore in the field of scientific and technological innovation, support 
Singaporean enterprises in participating fully in the industrial development 
and innovation of the CSGKS, and polish the CSGKS as the preferred place for 
Singapore enterprises to invest.

The China-Singapore International Joint Research Institute, which aims to build 
an important platform for China-Singapore cooperation and achievements 
transformation of scientific and technological innovation, has drawn on the 
experience and system of Singapore's industry-university-research integration 
and formulated nine industrialization systems, including the implementation 
rules of intellectual property support policies and several regulations on 
encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. It has attracted a group of 
international high-level talents represented by Nanyang Technological 
University of Singapore to set up projects in the institute, and promoted the 
achievements transformation.

The Regulations on CSGKC of Guangdong Province, which came into force on March 
1 this year, delegated the authority of national and provincial economic 
construction management to the Management Committee of CSGKS through 
legislation, which has made remarkable achievements in China-Singapore 
state-level bilateral cooperation projects.

In June this year, the China-Singapore Smart Park, one of the key projects to 
deepen cooperation in scientific and technological innovation and the 
construction of smart cities, was officially opened with a total investment of 
1.4 billion yuan. It has introduced more than 60 industrialization projects 
such as NCS Greater Bay Area Fintech Delivery Center, SP Group, Guangzhou Lion 
TCR, Star 3D Oral digital Medicine, etc.

Meanwhile, as a carrier of industrial innovation jointly built by China and 
Singapore, Ascendas OneHub GKC's Phase I Industrial Park has housed more than 
400 enterprises and employed 3,000 people. The Guangzhou Innovation Institute 
of National University of Singapore is about to recruit students, commit itself 
to training nearly 3,000 high-level talents over a 10-year period, and shoot 
for becoming the largest comprehensive flagship project of the National 
University of Singapore in China.

In recent years, cooperation projects between China and Singapore in key areas 
such as biomedicine, digital economy and green development have been launched 
in the CSGKS:

-- In terms of biomedicine, Biosyngen has built the largest commercial 
production base of immunocellular drugs in South China; Lion TCR (Singapore), 
the world's leading TCR-T cell therapy company, plans to build a GMP cell 
production base and serve as the company's headquarters in China.

-- In terms of digital economy, NCS, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore 
Telecom, selected the CSGKS to set up the Greater Bay Area Fintech Delivery 
Center and the first phase has started operation, which is expected that 500 IT 
professionals will be stationed at the end of the year to accelerate the 
development of 5G, digital twins, blockchain and other technologies and build a 
cross-border innovation ecosystem.

-- In terms of green development, the agreement was signed with SP Group to 
implement the investment, construction and operation of regional energy 
projects (including cooling and heating), starting from the Knowledge Tower 
project, and gradually promote them to other regions such as the 
China-Singapore International Scientific and Technological Innovation 
Cooperation Demonstration Zone.

-- In terms of financial services, the MOU of cooperation was signed with the 
Singapore Exchange to promote the issuance of green bonds by three state-owned 
enterprises, with a cumulative issuance scale of US $1.34 billion, and deepen 
the connectivity with the international financial market.

As an important carrier and innovation model of bilateral cooperation between 
China and Singapore, the CSGKC strives to build an important node in the GBA 
and become the world's knowledge economy highland. In the future, the CSGKC 
will further integrate development strategies of the Belt and Road Initiative 
and RCEP, continue to improve the level of institutional opening up, deepen 
cooperation in the digital economy and green development with Singapore, tap 
the potential of ASEAN countries and other markets, and show the world more new 
international cooperation programs and prospects full of Chinese wisdom.

Source: CSGKS Cooperation Affairs Office