Guangzhou Knowledge City useful testbed for tech, as Singapore, Guangdong expand cooperation: DPM Gan

GUANGZHOU/SHENZHEN: Singapore is looking to deepen collaboration with China’s Guangdong province in areas such as trade, investment, culture, and sports, as well as through the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (CSGKC), which marks its 15th anniversary this year, said Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong.

Mr Gan, who is also the Minister for Trade and Industry, met Guangdong governor Wang Weizhong on Monday (Sep 1) as part of his working visit to China from Aug 31 to Sep 4, with stops in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing.

“It is a good opportunity for us to relook at the direction of where the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City should be going,” said Mr Gan.

Mr Wang also proposed further collaboration between Guangdong and Singapore, including in trade and investment, tourism and sports, as well as “new quality productive forces” like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.

He highlighted Guangdong province’s complete industrial chain and enterprise support for the development of the robotics, semiconductor, and AI industries. 

“We also want to engage in deeper cooperation with Singapore, in terms of the pharmaceutical industry, because Singapore is quite impressive in terms of biomedicine and we can also cooperate to establish international hospitals.”

Mr Wang said he wants to upgrade the CSGKC, noting the project has achieved strong progress. 

“We also want the CSGKC to play a greater role in driving projects and supporting high-quality development,” he said.

Mr Gan said Singapore will need to study the proposal carefully in consultation with various partners. He noted that industries and the private sector have a role to play in the development of the Knowledge City.

Both leaders agreed that the CSGKC will continue to be a useful testbed for the development of new technologies and support knowledge sharing between both regions.

Guangdong has been Singapore’s top Chinese provincial trading partner for 36 consecutive years.