Singapore, Shenzhen strike deals to push digital collaboration

A new Asian SME Hub will also be open to facilitate access to a larger ecosystem of buyers.

Singapore has inked eight memoranda of understanding (MOU) with Shenzhen, China that will enable both enterprises and individuals to have ease of access to market opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) and Southeast Asia (SEA), a joint statement revealed.

The announcement also marked the first Singapore-China (Shenzhen) Smart City Initiative (SCI) Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) meeting, helmed by the Ministry of Communications and Information’s Permanent Secretary Yong Ying-I and Shenzhen Mayor Chen Rugui.

The SCI is centred around three pillars—digital connectivity, innovation and entrepreneurship, and tech talent exchange and development—with the goal of better supporting businesses and individuals, the announcement said.

A new Asian SME Hub will be set up to facilitate access to a larger ecosystem of buyers, sellers, logistics service providers, financing, and digital solution providers. Operational by July, it will facilitate trusted cross-border partnerships as businesses scale up and expand into new markets.

50 SMEs that are already selling industrial hardware, chemicals, safety, medical and office supplies on Eezee.sg, a B2B digital platform supported by IMDA under its Grow Digital initiative, will have access to a buyer base of 4 million SMEs in YiQiYe’s SME ecosystem in China.

Businesses can also benefit from seamless trade transactions with the streamlining of electronic documentations as both parties work towards the mutual recognition of these documents.

Additionally, with increased international trade and business activities, businesses from both cities will soon be able to rely on an efficient and effective “mediation-arbitration” dispute resolution model offered by the Singapore International Mediation Centre in collaboration with the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration to resolve cross-border disputes.

This is expected to help boost business confidence and maintain relationships as there is assurance that settlement agreements can be mutually enforced, the joint statement said.

In addition, both cities agreed to explore cooperation in talent exchange and work towards mutual recognition and interoperability of both parties' digital identity platforms.