SINGAPORE – Bilateral relations between Singapore and Guangdong received a boost with 17 projects signed during the 6th Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council (SGCC) meeting today (Nov 18).

The projects, which span the healthcare, transportation, urban solutions and environmental services sectors, come as Guangdong looks to introduce reforms and restructure its economy.

Speaking at the meeting, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said: “For this year, the Council will focus on contributing to Guangdong’s development of an intellectual property (IP) ecosystem, its urban rejuvenation plans and enhancement of its global connectivity.”

In order to beef up its IP management and support emerging knowledge-based enterprises, Guangzhou Knowledge City is looking to build a pool of IP practitioners to take advantage of its new Intellectual Property Protection and Services Hub.

This could present opportunities for Singapore IP-related service providers.

Mr Chia Kim Huat, regional head of corporate and transactional practice at Rajah & Tann, said: “It would be good if we could establish a framework in Guangzhou Knowledge City whereby foreign investors can have their technology protected and more importantly, enforced, if there is any issue in China.

“At the same time, China is also well-known for a lot of inventions and they themselves have a lot of their own technology to protect. Singapore has a lot of experience in pharma, internet and gaming space, so we do protect those intellectual property overseas. So the Chinese may also want to make use of Guangzhou Knowledge City to protect these technologies when they commercialise them and go international.”

Guangdong is also looking to rejuvenate parts of its cities as it deals with fast-paced growth.

Mr Lui said that Singapore companies have been contributing to the province’s urban rejuvenation projects with their experiences and capabilities accumulated during Singapore’s developing years. CapitaLand China and urban solutions provider Surbana will both be signing agreements to contribute in healthcare and community development projects, he noted.

A new association - the Guangdong Enterprise Association - has also been set up to promote business ties between Singapore and Guangdong. Huawei International and ZTE are among the well-known companies that have joined the association.

Mr Lui said: “What we have been trying to do is to encourage more business-to-business interactions - more networking, more opportunities for our people to know some of theirs and also open up Singapore as a possibility for them to set up an office here and expand thereafter from Singapore. So the Guangdong Enterprise Association that was inaugurated today is actually a very good development.”

CHANNEL NEWSASIA