Southern Metropolis Daily: What brings them to SSGKC one after another?

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Singapore, Heng Swee Keat (2nd, L), visits the SSGKC to learn about the Ascendas OneHub GKC. [Photo/Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co, Ltd]

Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (SSGKC) is to usher in its 9th birthday.

This landmark cooperative project between South China's Guangdong province and Singapore in the past six months has attracted five Singaporean officials at the ministerial level and above, namely Heng Swee Keat, Minister of Education, Ong Ye Kung, Minister of Culture, Community and Youth, Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Chee Hong Tat.

It was the second visit of Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon within this year.

The Sino-Singapore joint construction mode has been operative for a long time. In 1994, the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park was established. In 2007, the China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City took shape out of framework agreements.

On June 30, 2010, the foundation stone of the Knowledge City Project was laid as a landmark project of all-round strategic cooperation between the local government of China and Singapore.

Against the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Singapore Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity came into being in Chongqing in 2015.

The SSGKC is only one of four major Sino-Singapore cooperative projects to take place between Singapore and China's local government.

From May 22 to 29, Heng Swee Keat visited five cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. In Guangzhou, he went to the SSGKC to know more about its planning, the status of the Ascendas OneHub GKC, Talents Building, and the fuel cell project of the Sino-Singapore International Research Institute.

On December 6 last year, the China-Singapore International Smart Industrial Park started construction to become the first industrial park focused on deepened cooperation in the SSGKC's SciTech innovation and smart cities construction, a move welcomed by Ong Ye Kung, Grace Fu, Chee Hong Tat, and other senior Singaporean government officials.

In March, Koh Poh Koon led a 40-member delegation, including representatives of enterprises, the staff of the Metal Industries Workers' Union, and a representative of Singapore's Ministry of Manpower to visit the SSGKC.

At the SSGKC's planning exhibition hall conference center, they exchanged views with leaders and representatives from the Guangdong Robotics Association, Guangzhou Risong Intelligent Technology Holding Co, Ltd, data research institute of CASICloud, SCHMIDT and other enterprises on the experience of manufacturing enterprises transformation against the backdrop of Singapore's Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025.

Heng Swee Keat also said during his visit, "Chinese enterprises have seen significant improvement in their capabilities. In terms of Singaporean enterprises, it is vital to strengthen our transformation and ensure that we develop proven capabilities." 

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