New moves linking Singapore firms to China, Asean

Singapore

A PLATFORM connecting corporates with technology startups and a private-sector committee to help Singapore firms tap infrastructure opportunities are among the initiatives being launched at the two-day FutureChina Global Forum and Singapore Regional Business Forum, which began on Monday.

The forum combines the flagship events of Business China and the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) respectively, for the first time.

The Singapore-China Open Innovation Platform, officially launched on Tuesday, will promote collaboration across a network that includes government agencies, large corporates, startup communities including institutes of higher learning, venture capital players and manufacturers across Singapore, China and Asean.

Launched on Monday, the SBF Infrastructure Committee aims to complement the efforts of government-led Infrastructure Asia.

It will set up sub-committees to lead groups of Singapore firms in pursuing regional projects, with an initial focus on four sectors - utilities, transport, telecommunications and the built environment - across Asean and South Asia. Interested companies can register on SBF's website.

At Monday's opening ceremony, Business China also launched the FutureChina Regional Executive Programme to train talent from Singapore, China and Asean, with a focus on the Belt and Road; and signed several Memoranda of Understanding to provide internship opportunities for Singaporeans in China.

Asean is one of the key topics in the joint forum. In his opening speech, guest-of-honour Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean laid out how Asean-China cooperation can be strengthened, based on three principles of global interaction: commitment to an inter-connected world, to open and free trade, and to international law.

"They are key principles that guide the interactions among countries, and underpin Asean's relationships with all our partners," he said.

He highlighted opportunities such as the Master Plan on Asean Connectivity 2025 - suggesting that China's Belt and Road initiative could play a role in it - and the Asean Smart Cities Network, encouraging Chinese and Asean-based firms to reach out to the 26 pilot cities for collaborations.

Asean aside, the forum's other key topics are the Belt and Road initiative, and innovation. As a panellist in Monday's plenary luncheon, Minister for Education Ong Ye Kung spoke on the importance of innovation in Singapore's new phase of growth.

"Our growth model has been to get big companies here," he said. Yet today, this should go beyond foreign direct investment and setting up offices. Singapore's "new pitch" to multinationals: "Bring your R&D (research and development), your innovation to Singapore."

Singapore offers a rich talent pool, established research institutions, and regulations that make it "one of the best places in the world to commercialise and protect IP (intellectual property)", said Mr Ong.

"In the next phase, how we regulate becomes an important competitive advantage," he added. Singapore's well-regulated market can serve as an urban test bed for ideas, which can then be taken to the rest of the world.