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Enterprise-Led, Government-Supported, Market-Driven Development Model: Guangzhou Knowledge City

 26 February 2018
 3.00pm - 5.30pm. Registration from 2.30pm, seated by 3.00pm 
 MND Auditorium, MND Annex A, 5 Maxwell Road Singapore 069110
 2 SIP CPD pts, 2 SILA CPD pts

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Resources

Lecture Video & Photos

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Synopsis

From the Suzhou Industrial Park in the 1990s, to the Eco-City establishment in the 2000s, Singapore’s collaboration with the Chinese in Suzhou and Tianjin has shed much light on the evolving needs of China over the years. Looking ahead, China’s market, which comprises maturing industrial developments and a strong economy, is looking to upgrade to knowledge-based and higher value-added industries.

Lecture Report

Singapore is not a technology powerhouse, but we are a very good aggregator, able to put together all the hardware, the software and the intangibles that make a city liveable. That’s why we have been focusing not only on the physical development and infrastructure, which the Chinese are very good at, but also on things like [intellectual property] and good schools.
- Ng Kok Siong, Chief Executive Officer,
Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City

 

Governments around the world are under pressure to develop new urban centres, and many are turning to the private sector for help because of their limited resources.

 

One example is the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (GKC) by Ascendas-Singbridge. The Singapore urban and business space solutions provider is the master developer of this upcoming city that aims to attract skilled manpower and knowledge-based industries.

 

“It goes beyond physical development — we did not just do infrastructure provision such as the roads, the water, we were also involved heavily in industrial development and strategic collaboration,” said Ng Kok Siong, Chief Executive Officer of this joint venture development, at the launch of the publication, Guangzhou Knowledge City: A New Paradigm in Collaboration. He was joined by speakers across the public and private sector to discuss enterprise-led, government-supported and marketdriven collaborations in the GKC.

 

Ascendas-Singbridge…carried out investment promotion to companies already set up in China to build an ecosystem, and also built a talent pipeline with the local government to review policies and create breakthroughs such as improving the city’s physical and digital connectivity with the rest of the world.

 

His colleague, Nina Yang, who heads Ascendas-Singbridge’s Sustainable Urban Development platform, said developing this 123 km² development with a projected population of 500,000 offered a different set of challenges from when Singapore began exporting its urban development expertise to China in the 1990s with the Suzhou Industrial Park.

 

“GKC is meant to showcase the economic transformation of Guangdong province. China is long past the industrialisation era of the Suzhou Industrial Park, where it was about cheap land and cheap labour,” said Yang. Instead, Ascendas-Singbridge set out to upgrade the city’s economic structure. They carried out investment promotion to companies already set up in China to build an ecosystem, and also built a talent pipeline with the local government to review policies and create breakthroughs such as improving the city’s physical and digital connectivity with the rest of the world.

 

Yang added that she was continuously looking at how to align the interest of GKC’s different stakeholders. “The government is looking at GDP growth, how many companies you bring in and how many jobs you create. For the private sector, we’re looking at financial viability,” she says. “It was a complex process to structure elements that could satisfy the private sector need for financial viability, while at the same time being able to address government expectations for [economic growth], and a beautiful city.”

 

Another challenge faced by the group was the project’s long gestation. Ng said a lot of perseverance and patience is required. “In the seven years that I’ve been there, we have had three Guangzhou Party Secretaries and five local District Secretaries. Every party secretary wants to have their say in the planning process.”

 

GKC is also supported by a government-to-government initiative, the Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council. This has spawned collaborations such as the Singapore Joint Research Institute, a joint effort by Nanyang Technological University and the South China University of Technology. Other examples include the Singapore Innovation Manufacturing Centre, the China-Ready development programme for executives and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore’s partnerships in GKC, which is designated as China’s sole intellectual property (IP) reform zone.

 

GKC is also supported by a government-to-government initiative, the Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council. This has spawned collaborations such as the Singapore Joint Research Institute, a joint effort by Nanyang Technological University and the South China University of Technology. Other examples include the Singapore Innovation Manufacturing Centre, the China-Ready development programme for executives and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore’s partnerships in GKC, which is designated as China’s sole intellectual property (IP) reform zone.

 

To achieve this, the government is bringing in more industries focused on Singapore’s strengths and Guangdong’s needs. This includes areas like services in healthcare, education, IP arbitration, advanced manufacturing technology and innovation, as well as start-ups.

 

Private sector players are excited by the vision and groundwork that has been laid. Michael Leong, CEO of Sesto Robotics, said the Singapore Manufacturing Innovation Centre in the GKC exemplified the traditional Chinese proverb that says ‘at home you have your parents, when you go out you depend on your friends’. He added, “By banding the [Singapore] companies together, we move and hunt as a pack in the ever-demanding Guangzhou manufacturing hub.”

 

For Dr Victor Li Lietao, CEO of Lion TCR, the GKC’s live-work-play concept is a vital factor for his company which has commercialised a medical technology originating from research at A*Star. They had a laboratory in a healthcare and biotech in Beijing but noticed their staff for rushing for the shuttle bus to get home because the city became dead in the evening.

 

“For research and innovation-based jobs, we need people to have more flexible working schedules. If everyone plans their work within eight hours, their output is only 50 or 60%,” he said. “But in GKC, with a work-live-play environment, we don’t mind paying our staff subsidies to live there. Our staff from northern China, Beijing, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Guangzhou all relocated to GKC. Though we pay them 120% [for wages and accommodation], I believe their output is 150%.”

 

Written by Alvin Chua. This report first appeared in the Mar 2018 Better Cities newsletter.

 

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