Thursday 20 November 2008

3 Firms Invest in Shandong

Three Singapore companies on Thursday signed memorandums of understanding with China firms to invest in Shandong, a coastal province in eastern China.

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3 Firms Invest in Shandong

By Elizabeth Wilmot
20 November 2008

Three Singapore companies on Thursday signed memorandums of understanding with China firms to invest in Shandong, a coastal province in eastern China.

The MOUs were witnessed by Mr. Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Mr. Cai Limin, Shandong vice governor, following the 13th Singapore-Shandong Business Council (SSBC) meeting.

‘Shandong is the second largest economic province in terms of GDP in China, just after Guangdong and ahead of Jiangsu. Shandong will be a key province to implement part of the RMB 4 trillion (S$894.2 billion) stimulation package announced by the central government recently,” said Mr. Lee.

‘Singapore firms should leverage on the SSBC platform to pursue business opportunities in the province.’

Water treatment company Hyflux is one of the three companies. It will cooperate with Linyi government on municipal water projects.

The other two are Singapore Cruise Centre (SCC) and soya bean specialist Jollibean.

SCC will work with the Qingdao City Construction Investment Group to explore possibilities to provide consultancy and management services for QCCI’s cruise terminal operations and management project.

Jollibean will team up with Soya China to open Jollibean specialty stores in Shandong.

‘I think Shandong is one of the most progressive provincial states in China, with huge contribution to China’s GDP, and in their pursuit of excellence in the area of urbanisation, industrialisation and even sub-urbanisation,” said Mr. Sam Ong, group deputy chief executive of Hyflux.

‘We believe water infrastructure plays a key role in the development of these key areas.’

Thursday’s signing of the MOUs is just the tip of the iceberg. As at September, Singapore firms have invested in 1,187 projects amounting to US$3.09 billion (S$4.72 billion) in Shandong.

Educational services provider EtonHouse International’s schools located in the Jinan High Tech Zone, and Keppel Facilities Management and Operations are among the Singapore investors.

Bilateral trade between Singapore and Shandong reached US$2.23 billion in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 83.6 per cent over the same period in 2007.

The SSBC meeting also identified key areas of collaboration between Shandong and Singapore in upcoming 2009, namely, infrastructure and environmental services and education services with a focus on vocational and technical education.

‘I think Singapore firms can make good use of the next one year or two to explore new markets and new project possibilities with Shandong, so that when the economy recovers, Singapore firms will be in a very good position to take advantage of that growth,’ Mr. Lee said.