China and Singapore agreed Saturday that Chongqing, a sprawling metropolis in southwestern China, would be the site of their third government-to-government (G-to-G) project. The first has been operating for 21 years in the eastern city of Suzhou.
The project was announced during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Singapore.[Special coverage]
China and Singapore already have two G-to-G projects -- the Suzhou Industrial Park established in 1994 and Tianjin Eco-City inaugurated in 2008. The Chongqing project will have four main areas of collaboration -- financial services, aviation, logistics, and information technology. Based on connectivity and services, Chongqing will be a high-level innovation zone utilizing the city's geographical position close to western regions and the Yangtze River economic belt.
In just one case, China Media Capital (CMC), a consortium set up in Suzhou park on Oct. 31 by China's Internet moguls Alibaba and Tencent has an initial capital of 10 billion yuan (1.57 billion U.S. dollars) and was China's leading media and entertainment investment fund before it had even opened for business.
Li Ruigang, chair of CMC, said the company wants to make use of the State Council plan to make the park a comprehensive experimental zone on opening up and innovation, which should generate a vigorous environment in the park.
A number of heavyweight firms and programs have chosen to settle in the park, said Li Xianghong, chairman of Oriza Holdings, one of the investors in CMC. Oriza has invested in over 1,000 firms in the park.
The park, covering an area of 278 square kilometers in Suzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province, accounts for only 3.4 percent of the city's land area, but contributes 15 percent of GDP.
As the largest Sino-Singapore cooperative project, the park has attracted 26.7 billion U.S. dollars of foreign investment into 5,200 programs since it was opened in 1994. More than 90 Fortune 500 enterprises have invested there.
Yang Zhiping, a park manager, said over the past 20 years, the management committee has sent 3,000 people to Singapore for training in urban planning, construction management and public administration.
"Singapore's management practices have borrowed from Western experiences while taking into consideration Chinese business culture," Yang said adding that the park's management is separate from government.
"Suzhou park is a localized mini-Singapore park in China. Its experience can be easily transferred to the next G-to-G project between China and Singapore," said Xian Guoming, director of the Transnational Research Center at Nankai University in Tianjin.
