SINGAPORE : Hunting as a pack -- that is what 16 Singapore
companies in industries ranging from logistics to media are now
doing in China.
They are one of the largest groups of companies from Singapore to
venture into Tianjin to explore opportunities.
Their trip from 20 to 23 March follows a recent call by a Member of
Parliament to local companies to venture overseas in clusters, like
their Taiwanese counterparts.
With several successful co-productions with Chinese cities,
MediaCorp is planning to go big in Tianjin.
It hopes to co-produce and film drama and travel shows as well as
market its own television productions to the local broadcasting
authority.
With its recent landing in China, Channel NewsAsia, too, is also
hoping to seal some deals.
The channel, which prides itself in providing an Asian perspective,
is hoping to broadcast in hotels and foreign-owned compounds in
Tianjin.
MediaCorp is part of a 40-strong Singapore delegation comprising
staff from companies like Temasek Holdings, SembCorp Industries,
SMRT, and ST Electronics.
Their reason for banding together is strength in numbers.
Said Soo Kok Leng, corporate advisor at Temasek Holdings, "Now we
are going to hunt as a pack, we cluster the companies into their
own interest groups. We have broken the groups of people from China
and our own companies into different clusters like media,
electronics, transportation, logistics so that the different
parties have a chance to talk about possible collaboration.
"If you want to build a township, you need people who are
developers, people who provide utilities like SembCorp utilities,
industrial property developers like Ascendas, part of JTC, and
Jurong International, who does the township design and
consultancy."
Singapore Cruise Centre, another company in the group, is hoping to
help develop and manage a cruise terminal in Tianjin.
Their vision is to develop a network of ports across China to
create a big cruise industry, but they can't do it alone.
Said Jay Pang, vice president of Singapore Cruise Centre, "It's
only viable if it's an integrated development. We need other
industry players to come in as well, people that build integrated
resort, logistics and infrastructure so that we can include a
cruise terminal in the project."
The companies, which span across seven industries, are working on
ways to cooperate in their various projects.
Tianjin companies have made three trips to Singapore since last
year to woo investors to its fast growing Tianjin Binhai New
Area.
So far, Singapore companies have already injected about 1 billion
US dollars into this area.
The companies include SembCorp, Jurong Tech and YCH logistics. -
CNA