Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, is adding more supporting facilities to its map to better serve businesses and residents.

Construction of a neighborhood center and operation of an innovation center started on March 23 - two major milestones in SSGKC's development.

The Urban South Neighborhood Center, the first of its kind in SSGKC, will be able to serve 6,000 to 8,000 families upon completion. The center, with a total investment of 230 millionyuan ($33.41 million), will be operational in 2019.

Five such centers will be built in SSGKC and construction of the remaining four will start soon,according to the city developer.

"The first neighborhood center at SSGKC combines the key features of Singaporean and Guangdong architecture. The center will become a landmark in SSGKC," said Sun Xuewei,deputy director of the Guangzhou Development District Administrative Committee. "Thelaunch of the neighborhood center shows that SSGKC is accelerating steps to satisfy residents' changing demands."

The neighborhood center is a concept that emerged in Singapore, aiming to provide social services to nearby residents. People can engage in shopping, cultural activities, physical exercise, healthcare, education and access to government and home services in the center.The concept was introduced to the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in 1997.

The SSGKC neighborhood center's three blocks, designed to cater to residents' basic dailydemands, will be connected by covered walkways to allow people to easily access severalareas, even in poor weather.

The neighborhood center will be seamlessly connected to the future metro station, bus stops and other nearby public amenities via covered walkways.

"Establishment of the neighborhood center allows residents to enjoy high standards of livingnear their homes. It will be a demonstration spot to show the city's innovative community management services," said Xu Hongsheng, chairman of Guangzhou Development District Commercial Development Group and Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co.

Supportive ecosystem

The initiation of the Ascendas-Singbridge International Launch Pad marks new progressmade in SSGKC's development to be a model and catalyst for Guangdong's drive forinnovation and economic transformation. Conceptualized by Ascendas-Singbridge, a Singapore-based sustainable urban and business space solutions provider, the Ascendas-Singbridge ILP leverages Singapore's experience in cultivating a supportive ecosystem that enables businesses and start-ups to grow and succeed. The ILP comprises three maincomponents: a premium business lounge that facilitates business exchanges through networking, casual discussions or formal meetings; an innovation center to nurture innovativeenterprises that offer digital and smart manufacturing services; as well as a collaborationcenter that provides a comprehensive suite of business services such as businessregistration, access to accelerator and financial services, intellectual property rights commercialization and protection, as well as marketing services.

As a start, the ASB ILP will focus on attracting companies in the sectors of eServices,eMobility, eHealth and energy Management. The ILP will seed a cluster of startup and growth companies within Ascendas OneHub GKC's rapidly growing business community that will catalyze economic growth and innovative ventures in Guangzhou.

"The progress of development at SSGKC is taking place rapidly, and across all fronts. As thecity of Guangzhou continues on its economic transformation, SSGKC, as a vibrant hub that appeals to global talent in the knowledge economy, will serve as a key enabler that facilitates the growth of new and innovative industries," said Nina Yang, Ascendas-Singbridge's CEO for Sustainable Urban Development.

tangzhihao@chinadaily.com.cn

Sino-Singapore Joint Research Institute

Operation of the Sino-Singapore Joint Research Institute will be launched in May to conduct research and provide support to knowledge-based businesses in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City.

The institute is a technological research platform established by several parties, including Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the South China University of Technology in SSGKC. It will conduct research and support businesses involved in next-generation electric vehicles and intelligent urban transportation, nutrition and food science, sustainable urban development, pollution control and environmental restoration, as well as biomedical materials and medical instruments.

The Guangzhou city government and district governments have provided 250 million yuan($36.25 million) in funding to support the institute. SSGKC's outstanding research anddevelopment environment has become a key factor in attracting knowledge-based businesses to the region. Some 230 innovative companies including Siemens and Procter & Gamblehave settled in SSGKC with total registered capital of 29.4 billion yuan by the end of last year.The city operators plan to attract more than 2,000 new foreign and domestic high-tech companies by 2020.