Investments are picking up in the Singapore-Sichuan Hi-tech Innovation Park (SSCIP), with eight to ten deals expected to be signed by year-end, the developers said.
Negotiations are underway for another 30 companies, said SembCorp Development's senior adviser Low Sin Leng yesterday.
She spoke at a signing ceremony held on the sidelines of the 12th World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention (WCEC) in the south-western city of Chengdu.
The latest investors follow the first batch of five firms - including Singapore's Hong Leong Group and animation firm Cubix International - which committed investments in July this year.
A unit of Sembcorp Industries inked a joint venture with a Chinese partner in May last year to co-develop the 1,000ha mixed-use site in the Tianfu New City central business district, seeking knowledge-intensive industries such as information technology, digital media, and pharmaceutical research.
Construction is expected to cost US$3.2 billion (S$4 billion), and the park is set to be ready in 2020.
Four global property consultancies - Colliers International, CBRE, DTZ and Jones Lang LaSalle - will also tap on their overseas network to court investors through a memorandum of understanding inked with the SSCIP yesterday.
For the park's initial phase, which measures 3 sq km, one focus will be on attracting global bio-pharmaceutical firms, including possibly those from Biopolis in Singapore, said Ms Low, who is also chairman of the joint venture. "It can be an expansion or extension of their current research in Singapore so that they can do more comprehensive testing," she added.
In the past year, some of Sichuan's top government officials and businessmen have been arrested in a crackdown on corruption.
But Mr Chong Joon Woon, Sembcorp Development's vice-president of planning and business development, told The Straits Times that while there are "general concerns", the crackdown has not deterred investors or impeded the park's development.
Some Singaporean businessmen who were part of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry's delegation to the WCEC, for instance, expressed interest in investing after visiting the park yesterday.
Mr Victor Foo, 42, chief executive of Digistore Solutions, said he has been looking at expanding the research and development arm of his technology business into western China over the past two years and would consider the SSCIP.
"We have smaller developments in Guangzhou, but I think the trend for knowledge-based industries now is a move towards central China," he added. The Chinese government has been developing new economic zones to reduce regional inequality.
Mr Foo said he was considering an investment of between $10 million and $15 million, and possibly 400 to 500 staff. "I'm in a rush and hope to do it by next year."
Source: SPH
