Guangzhou Knowledge City aims to set the standard

With companies and the private sector taking the lead, Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City offers an innovative model for industry and governmental cooperation, a top manager of the project told China Daily.

Founded in 2010, it is another strategic collaboration project between China and Singapore following the Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-City. However, its enterprise-led, market-operated with government support development model is the first of its kind.

"Via these projects, Singapore has shared its expertise with China and on the other hand brought Chinese experience home to expand its global business," said Chin Phei Chen, CEO of Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co Ltd. "The business cooperation has also strengthened ties between the two governments."

"The model can be copied more easily elsewhere on a large scale," Chin said.

After a visit to Guangzhou Knowledge City in September, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Knowledge City is a model worth exploring.

It aims to become a model for the economic transformation of Guangdong province through emerging sectors such as new generation information communication technology, new materials, environmental protection, bio-medicine and healthcare.

Different from Suzhou Industrial Park's manufacturing industry and Tianjin Eco-City's focus on sustainable development, the Guangzhou project "combines smart-city and eco-city initiatives with development of knowledge-based industries", said Chin.

The CEO said that introducing cutting-edge ideas is more important than attracting investments, adding that the management has started creating favorable conditions to build industry clusters for the area.

"Just using the land in the area to attract investors is not our primary objective," he said. "A cluster must be established where different companies from related industries link and interact with each other to form a mutually supporting value chain."

One example is the medical service sector, he said. "It includes not just a cluster of hospitals or nursing homes, but also many related elements.

"There will be R&D centers and academic training facilities in the hospitals. And there will be many specialized hospitals and clinics surrounding big hospitals," he said, "Development of the environmental protection sector is also closely related to healthcare industry."

IP protection

Chin said that although many international companies are interested in the huge and growing market in China, they are worried about intellectual property rights infringement.

To complement the innovation-intensive industry structure, Guangzhou Knowledge City will also become a model zone for intellectual property protection and services through joint efforts by the Chinese and Singaporean IP authorities.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed between both Singapore and China's national IP offices in October, existing collaboration will be expanded to provide faster and more effective protection to patents by innovators in both countries.

Also, an advisory panel will be established to advise on development plans for the IP Hub in Guangzhou Knowledge City as well as help companies attain and commercialize IP, build capacity and expertise and host mutual visits and exchanges.

"This inter-governmental MoU is a testament to the strong cooperative ties between China and Singapore," said State Intellectual Property Office Commissioner Shen Changyu.

"The collaboration will assist Chinese and Singaporean companies to better utilize their intellectual property in both markets."

Other IP-related efforts include an education program by the IP Academy of Singapore and Chinese universities, an IP trade center and an IP court, one of the first three nationwide.

"Singapore has been a regional hub in Asia with success in innovation and attracting talent, but the market is limited," said Chin. "Meanwhile, China has a huge market with rich human resources, but we just have to build a conducive environment to attract top professionals."

He said that most of the companies in Guangzhou Knowledge City will be international and local firms that leverage the Sino-Singapore project to secure opportunities in China.

"By forming joint ventures, the Chinese and foreign partners will join hands to tap China's domestic market, and to eventually expand into the global market together," he said. "And when this bridge is built, the China-Singapore relationship will be further reinforced."

The management will develop local talent through partnership with renowned international and local universities. One planned program involves the collaboration of the Technical University of Munich in Germany, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and South China University of Technology to set up a Joint Research Institute in Guangzhou Knowledge City.

According to the master plan for Guangzhou Knowledge City, it will cover 60 square kilometers of developable land when completed in 2030.

Chin said the time up to 2020 is "crucial" because that is when all the policies and systems are to be established with the Start-up Area completed.

"It is hard to tell what specific industries we will focus on or what challenges we will have to face beyond 2020 because the world economy is always changing, but Guangzhou Knowledge City will maintain innovative development and adapt responsively to changing markets ," he said.

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/10/2014 page39)