Singapore and Chinese technology companies are strengthening business connections and exchanges of expertise at the Smart China Expo 2019 under the theme “Smart Technology: Empowering Economy, Enriching Life”. The Expo will run from 26 to 29 August in Chongqing to capitalise on the exciting opportunities in Asia’s digital economies. The Expo has also recognised Singapore as this year’s Country of Honour for the second year running, showing the importance and strong economic ties between both cities.

Expanding presence at SCE 2019

The Singapore delegation, led by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), number close to 70 companies, an increase of more than 50% from last year’s showing of 40 companies. The delegation this year includes new participating companies such as Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (Singtel) and SkyLab, as well as companies such as ST Engineering Electronics, veriTAG, Handshakes and Fooyo, who are returning to build on the success from their first trip in 2018. For example, Fooyo, a smart tourism solution provider based in Singapore, is returning to Smart China Expo following the successful creation of the Ai Chongqing (爱重庆) tourism platform app for the Chongqing Tourism Investment Group. This year, Fooyo and the Chongqing Tourism Investment Group formed a joint venture to focus on promoting Chongqing as an international tourism destination, and create smart tourism solutions for China’s domestic and international markets.

Occupying 3,000 square metres, the Singapore Digital pavilion will feature 32 Singapore companies, of which 26 are new exhibitors. The pavilion will feature exhibits on fintech, urban solutions, artificial intelligence, data analytics, transport and logistics.

Strengthening partnerships between Singapore and China’s digital ecosystems

Thirteen memorandums of understanding (MOUs) were signed on the first day of the event, ranging from an augmented reality education system for pre-schools, to developing analytic solutions for smart manufacturing markets, and research collaboration on artificial intelligence. Singapore’s telecommunications companies, Singtel and StarHub also signed respective MOUs with the three leading communications service providers in China – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. The MOUs will pave the way for improving data connectivity between the two cities, and position both Singapore and Chongqing as strategic hubs for enterprises to expand into the Asia Pacific region and western China respectively. Singtel will also provide its capabilities in cloud, Internet-of-Things (IoT) and smart city solutions to help enterprises accelerate their digitalisation.

In addition, the Sino-Singapore ICM Joint Innovation Development Fund to support innovative ICM projects to promote joint partnership between Singapore and Chinese companies was officially launched. RMB40 million will be available for innovative projects, to be jointly developed and implemented in Singapore or China, that may include research and development, and pilots to promote innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (machine learning, deep learning etc), IoT, virtual reality and augmented reality, robotics, and blockchain technology.

As part of the Smart China Expo, IMDA and the Chongqing municipal government jointly hosted the inaugural “Future of Services” conference. Organised in partnership with Business China, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity Administration Bureau (CCIB), and the Chongqing Big Data Bureau, the conference will explore the important role that services will play in our future economy. The event will be graced by Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Home Affairs, Mrs Josephine Teo and Mayor for Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, Mr Tang Liangzhi.

The Smart China Expo also saw the conclusion of the Sino-Singapore Industrial App Innovation Competition, a collaboration between Singapore and Chongqing under the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative’s ICT pillar. It is jointly hosted by IMDA, the Smart China Expo Organising Committee, and China Centre for Information Industry Development (CCID), as well as supported by Feixiang IIOT (a joint venture between Alibaba Cloud, and Chongqing NanAn District), SGTech, Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) and Enterprise Singapore. The competition aims to apply solutions to sectors ranging from automotive, electronics, machinery, medical to textile, and the solutions are expected to increase efficiency, improve quality of products and reduce costs. Singapore’s finalist, Printed Power, is one of the six winning companies, out of the close to 90 companies that submitted proposals for the competition. Printed Power focuses on smarter city and manufacturing technology to empower customers with sensor-end to application-end platform solution.

More opportunities to work together for a digital future

“Chongqing and the western region of China are important markets for Singapore-based technology enterprises. We are also seeing more Chinese enterprises expanding into South East Asia and they are looking for like-minded business partners for the region. The annual Smart China Expo is an important platform for our companies to showcase their products and services, and explore partnership opportunities with Chinese enterprises. In support of China-Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative, we are glad to participate as a Country of Honour,” said IMDA Chief Executive, Tan Kiat How.