On the morning of March 19（GMT+8）, the Singapore session of the 7th Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference was successfully held. The participants discussed new opportunities for RCEP cooperation and new advantages of the global supply chain. This is the first time that Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference had a session in Singapore. It is also the first time that the Guangzhou Municipal Government has organized a promotional event in Singapore since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic.

This meeting was jointly organized by Cedar Holdings, a Fortune Global 500 company based in Guangzhou and China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co., Ltd., with the theme of "seize new RCEP cooperation opportunities and create new global supply chain advantages". Representatives from the Embassy of China in Singapore, Singapore Enterprise Development Board, Bank of Communications Singapore Branch, Rabobank, Stemcor, a leading global steel trader, Integra, a global petrochemical supply chain leader and other organizations attended the meeting.

Hong Qian, director of the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, joined the conference via video link. He encouraged domestic and overseas business leaders, entrepreneurs, experts and scholars to have in-depth dialogue over future development on this investment cooperation platform in the Greater Bay Area.

Hong Qian, director of the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce

Last November, 15 countries including China and Singapore jointly signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), which would further remove barriers for investment and the flow of people. New industrial changes and development opportunities RCEP will bring to the global supply chain industry has become the focus of the conference.

"RCEP will set an example of global regional development." Han Gang, Vice President of Cedar Holdings and President of Cedar Commodity Supply Chain Group, said in his speech. It will help comprehensively promote regional cooperation on production capacity, stabilize regional industrial chain and supply chain, promote the efficient allocation of market economy factors, and bring new opportunities to the overseas business expansion for Chinese companies, especially the supply chain business in the Asia-Pacific region.

Han Gang said that Singapore is an important participant of RCEP and an important part of the “Belt and Road” initiative. Currently Cedar’s commodities supply chain business has established business presence globally with many supply chain subsidiaries in Singapore. Cedar will seize the opportunity of RCEP cooperation to further expand the international marketing network, actively promote the domestic and international dual circulation, and inject new momentum into the pragmatic cooperation between China and Singapore and the China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City.

Ni Boqi, vice president of China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Corporation, said at the forum that RCEP is an "integrator" of economic and trade rules in the Asia-Pacific region. It integrates multiple "10+5" free trade agreements between China and ASEAN, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and is the world's largest free trade zone. The establishment of RCEP shows that currently about one-third of the world's economies have formed a comprehensive market.

Jan WM de Laat, Director of Rabobank’s Commodity Trade Finance Business in Asia, said that at present, Rabobank has good cooperation with parts of China, and will further provide financial support for the carbon neutrality of China’s metal smelting and trading industries in the future based on the green loan principle.

Gina Fyffe, CEO of Cedar’s Integra, said that currently about 40% of Integra’s business comes from Asia. In the future, Integra will seize the opportunity to export China’s high-end chemical products to regions outside of Asia and use Cedar’s mature supply chain network in China to make it convenient for Integra to conduct commodities trade settlement in renminbi, so that it could further optimize and expand its import and export with China and domestic trade business.

Gina Fyffe, CEO of Integra, gave a speech

"Asia has become Stemcor's largest market." Gerry Craggs, head of Stemcor Singapore, a subsidiary of Cedar, said at the forum that Stemcor's steel trading business volume in China increased significantly last year. With the signing of RCEP, Stemcor hopes to further expand its business and expand financing channels to support continuous development of import and export trade of steel and raw materials in China, and contribute to China-Singapore economic and trade cooperation.

Gerry Craggs, Head of Stemcor Singapore,  delivered a speech

You Dixiang, Honorary Chairman of the Guangdong Guild Hall in Singapore, said that RCEP will not only help countries to further deepen economic and trade ties, but also provide additional preferential treatment, simplify customs procedures, and create a more favourable trading environment for Singaporean companies.

Attendees also discussed and exchanged in-depth views on topics such as the development status of the global supply chain industry, the development plan of China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, and China-Singapore economic and trade exchanges.

Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference has been held for six consecutive years. Each year, the conference attracts domestic and foreign business leaders, entrepreneurs and scholars to conduct in-depth dialogues on top economic issues and seek development cooperation opportunities. The 7th Guangzhou Annual Investment Conference will be held in Guangzhou on March 30 this year. It is the first time that the conference had parallel sessions in six cities across the world, namely Singapore, Boston, Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, Heidelberg, and Auckland.