Sembcorp Development and China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park Development inked a Memorandum of Agreement to develop new industrial parks to be built in Southeast Asia on Tuesday. The signing happened during the 12th Singapore - Jiangsu Cooperation Council meeting held in Singapore.
The agreement is one of the 13 MOU's signed during the meeting. The MOU's are aimed at deepening Singapore and Jiangsu's economic partnership and to advance China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The agreements include areas such as trade, logistics, and financial services. The MOU involves investments from SP Chemicals, Sembcorp, and Enterprise Singapore.
An MOU was agreed between Enterprise Singapore and Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee (SIPAC). The agreement plans to develop third-party market collaboration in the Belt and Road.
Four additional MOU's were signed by SIPAC, Singapore Exchange, and three banks, namely DBS, OCBC, and UOB, to encourage collaborations in fintech and to facilitate investments into Singapore and Jiangsu.
According to reports, SP chemicals are planning to establish their latest petrochemical plant with the Taixing government to promote global chemical trading. According to reports, the company's investment amounting to the U.S. $800 million is the single largest overseas investment in Taixing.
An MOU to build a collaborative innovation center developing smart drone surveying technology for the protection of the environment was also signed by Sembcorp Development, Temasek Polytechnic, Duralite Power and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said that the MOU's show the recognition that Singapore and China have "very strong complementaries" with each other. Minister Heng co-chaired the meeting with Jiangsu Governor Wu Zhenglong on Tuesday. He added that Singapore can think of itself as Asia's center of technology, innovation, and enterprise which will cater to the flow of investors from both countries.
Minister Heng said that Singapore can serve as a very good base for Chinese companies that are going out into the region and, in turn, it can also be a very good base for global companies that are seeking to enter China in Asia. He also added that Singapore is willing to support China's economic priority referring to the BRI. According to him, the BRI will prove to be "a major area of cooperation in the coming years" and he noted that Singapore is one of the early supporters of the initiative.
Recently, the U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticized the initiative warning other countries not to be attracted by the massive infrastructure programs promised by China.
