This article is originally from The Straits Times, written by Jolene Ang:
SINGAPORE – Singapore is putting out the welcome mat to entice enterprises in China’s Jiangsu province to use the Republic as a hub for expansion here and in South-east Asia.
A digital catalogue – called Singapore’s Professional Services Welcome Pack – has been launched to facilitate more partnerships between professional services firms here and Chinese companies.
It features more than 70 Singapore firms that specialise in areas such as legal, accounting, corporate secretarial, human resources and real estate.
The welcome pack was launched on Monday (Nov 15) at the 15th Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council meeting, which was held virtually.
Second Minister for Finance and National Development Indranee Rajah co-chaired the meeting with Mr Xu Kunlin, acting governor of Jiangsu.
Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, and Mr Hui Jianlin, Jiangsu vice-governor, were also at the meeting as vice-co-chairmen.
Ms Indranee said the welcome pack will widen and deepen Singapore’s internationalisation corridor with the Yangtze River Delta region.
She added: “We hope that with a clearer view of our professional services ecosystem’s offerings, more Jiangsu enterprises will use Singapore as a hub, and more partnerships will be forged.”
During the meeting, Enterprise Singapore and the Jiangsu Department of Science and Technology signed a memorandum of understanding for a programme to support innovation projects involving companies from both countries.
Such tie-ups could be in sectors such as life sciences as well as green and low-carbon industries.
Ms Indranee noted the importance of bilateral trade and collaboration.
Two-way trade between Jiangsu and Singapore grew 12.6 per cent year on year to reach US$11.3 billion (S$15.3 billion) in the first three quarters of this year.
Singapore companies were involved in 4,730 projects in the province as at end-2020.
“With the pandemic, it is ever more important that Singapore and Jiangsu stay connected, and ensure open supply chains and greater two-way trade and investment flows,” said Ms Indranee, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.
A number of agreements related to commercial projects were signed at the meeting. They include an alliance between Singapore and Jiangsu travel agencies to promote the province’s cultural and tourism products here and in regional markets through social media and other platforms.
Singapore company Mapletree is committing to invest to build and operate an integrated industrial park in Nanjing serving the high-end automotive parts and precision engineering industry.
CapitaLand Investment will be involved in an urban renewal project in the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, focusing on the digital economy as well as green and sustainability sectors.
