Singapore and Guangdong renewed and expanded their business partnership at the 13th Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council meeting on Monday (Jun 26), where over 20 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were signed between public and private bodies.

Besides deepening existing collaborations, Singapore and Guangdong will explore cooperation in three new areas: sustainability and green economy; digital economy and smart cities; and health and biomedical.

This is under the MOU for Enhanced Cooperation and Renewal of the Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council, signed on Monday by Singapore’s Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung and Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong, who Co-Chairs the council.

Ong noted that the cooperation covers key areas discussed during Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s visit to China in March, when the two countries upgraded their bilateral relations.

He added that the upgraded partnership will guide expanded collaboration in “forward-looking areas with great future potential” such as finance, health and digital and green economies.

Wang invited Singapore to play a greater part in the development of the Greater Bay Area, including the special zones of Hengqin in Zhuhai, Qianhai in Shenzhen and Nansha in Guangzhou.

Guangdong has been Singapore’s top Chinese provincial trading partner for 34 consecutive years, with a record US$23.1 billion in trade in 2022, up 17 per cent year on year. In Q1 2023, trade jumped 54 per cent to US$6.7 billion, following China’s reopening.

At Monday’s meeting, 21 project agreements were inked by companies and government agencies from both countries, in areas such as educational technology, fintech, health, intellectual property and energy.

For instance, Comfort DelGro and Guangzhou Public Transport Group signed an MOU for strategic cooperation on new energy businesses.

Keppel Corporation, through its infrastructure division, signed an MOU to design and implement smart energy-as-a-service solutions in China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (CSGKC), with the joint-venture company behind the bilateral project.

At the meeting, it was revealed that the CSGKC achieved a gross domestic product of 5.11 billion yuan (S$961 million) in Q1 2023, up almost 10 per cent from the year-ago period in 2022. Over 40 Singapore companies are present there.

To encourage more Singapore companies to set up in the CSGKC, Enterprise Singapore signed an MOU with the CSGKC Administrative Committee and CSGKC investment & Development Co to provide more support. This includes incentives for market entry and technology commercialisation.

Another key platform project in the region is the Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative, under which 29 digital technology projects have been initiated since 2020.

Beyond that, 1,300 Singapore companies have invested US$2.6 billion in Shenzhen, while 153 Shenzhen enterprises have invested US$2.14 billion in Singapore. Shenzhen hopes to welcome more foreign talent, including from Singapore, with measures such as preferential policies for enterprise and personal income tax, said Yu Xinguo, deputy secretary of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee.

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