The 14th Meeting of the Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council (SGCC) was held on the morning of July 31 at the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City (CSGKC) International Convention and Exhibition Center in Guangzhou.

In the welcome remark, Wang Weizhong, Governor of Guangdong Province, noted that Guangdong and Singapore have a solid foundation for exchanges and good momentum of cooperation. Guangdong has been Singapore's largest provincial trading partner in China for 35 consecutive years.

Mr. Wang sincerely welcomes more Singaporean enterprises to invest and establish businesses in Guangdong, encouraging them to share in the benefits arising from the dividends of the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Guangdong's reform and development.

Ong Ye Kung, the Minister for Health of Singapore, concluded that in recent years, the mutually beneficial cooperation between Singapore and Guangdong Province has deepened and achieved a lot.

Next, both sides will further make good use of high-level communication mechanisms such as SGCC, and continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation in economic and trade investment, financial services, scientific and technological innovation, biomedicine, green economy, etc. 

Hew Kian Heong, Head of International Arbitration, Construction & Projects in China Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP, said it's his first time participating in the meeting to learn more about the cooperation between Guangdong Province and Singapore.

As an international law firm in Singapore, what chances can it have in cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong? Particularly, some Guangdong enterprises go abroad to invest overseas.

Mr. Hew is still more concerned about not only investing directly in Singapore but also using Singapore as a springboard to access larger markets in Southeast Asia for investment.

"This is one aspect that Singapore can do better. Enterprises in Guangdong can also utilize this platform to seek business opportunities in a larger market. In this case, it's not just Guangdong; the economy of the entire Southeast Asia will also be better," he added.

At the signing ceremony for the Guangdong-Singapore enterprise cooperation project on the spot, 20 MoUs were signed across various domains, including biomedicine, financial services, green development, agricultural technology, education talents, smart transportation and platform construction.

Michelle Chen, Co-founder & CEO of Biosyngen, noted that she is very honored, and it is her third time being listed in SGCC.

Regarding the signing project of double resistance against autoimmunity, Miss Chen noted that people's lifespan is getting longer currently, which implies that the body machine will also break down. Everyone starts to pay attention to issues of autoimmunity such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc., which are all related to immunity.

Miss Chen's company is partnering with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research Singapore to promote the project together and benefit the world.

Biomedicine is one of the three pillar industries in the GBA. According to Miss Chen, the enterprise hopes to develop specific policy support for the GBA in the domains of new drug R&D accelerators, or subsidies, etc., for these original medicines.

Established in 2009, the Singapore-Guangdong Cooperation Council has become an effective platform for both sides to promote pragmatic cooperation. It has played an increasingly critical role in deepening exchanges and cooperation between Guangdong Province and Singapore.