Singapore, China's Guangdong enhance cooperation

The trade and economic partnership between Singapore and China's Guangdong Province has been enhanced, as a representative office was set up on Tuesday aimed at boosting cooperation in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City project.

Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, positioned as a model and catalyst of the economic upgrading and environmental enhancement of Guangdong Province in south China, is a huge joint venture project intended to set the trend for sustainable and knowledge-based cities.

It has a total site area of 123 square km. Half of them will be reserved as forest, while the remaining 60 square km of land is expected to be developed over the next 15 to 20 years. It aims at leading in creating innovations, new ventures and high-value products and services, and in building a sustainable, low-carbon city.

The Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co., Ltd., a 50-50 joint venture between Singapore and Guangdong, is the master developer of the Guangzhou Knowledge City.

The company unveiled here its first overseas representative office on Tuesday. The office will focus on enhancing relations with collaboration partners, promoting investments into the Guangzhou Knowledge City, conducting research on relevant industries and exploring opportunities for collaboration, as well as coordinating event organization and official visits.

Chin Phei Chen, CEO of the joint venture, said the office is aimed at helping bring more international investors and partners into the Guangzhou Knowledge City. The Guangzhou Knowledge City " is ready to welcome its first batch of corporations by 2015," he added.

The new office came after 18 memorandums of understanding (MoU), worth about 3.75 billion U.S. dollars, were signed between Singapore and Guangdong on Monday.

The MoUs were signed at the Singapore-China (Guangdong) Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference and witnessed by Singapore's Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew and Hu Chunhua, the top official of Guangdong who is here for a three-day visit from Sunday to Tuesday.

Guangdong is Singapore's top trading partner in China, with bilateral trade reaching 17.9 billion U.S. dollars last year, according to Singapore's official data. As of end 2013, Singapore' s cumulative actual investments in Guangdong grew almost 10 percent, exceeding 9 billion U.S. dollars.