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Singapore Minister for Health Mr Khaw Boon Wan and Mr Liang Bao Hua, Jiangsu Party Secretary, were in Wuxi today to grace the Wuxi-Singapore Industrial Park’s (WSIP) 15th anniversary celebrations. Mr Khaw and Mr Liang, who jointly chair the Singapore Jiangsu Cooperation Council, were joined at the celebrations by Singapore Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Manpower Mr Lee Yi Shyan; Singapore Parliamentary Secretary for Trade & Industry and Information, Communications & the Arts Mr Sam Tan; Sembcorp Industries’ Group President & CEO Mr Tang Kin Fei; and Executive Chairman of Sembcorp’s industrial parks business unit & Vice-Chairman of the WSIP Development Corporation Ms Low Sin Leng. Representatives of the China government present included Jiangsu Province Vice Governor Mr Zhang Wei Guo; Wuxi Municipal Party Secretary Mr Yang Wei Ze, and Wuxi New District Party Secretary Mr Zhou Qian.

At the time of its launch in 1994, the WSIP was one of Singapore’s earliest bilateral cooperation projects. WSIP’s concept of a self contained industrial park with supporting amenities and one stop service, dedicated to attracting foreign investors was then new in China. The WSIP proved very popular, riding on the wave of industrialisation sweeping the Yangtze River Delta and its immediate Jiangsu province, of which Wuxi is a part.

The WSIP is 49% held by a Singapore consortium led by Sembcorp Industries and the remaining 51% share is held by the Wuxi New District Economic Development Corporation. Sembcorp Industries holds a 92.58% stake in the Singapore consortium. The WSIP has done well over the last 15 years despite its relatively small land area of 290 hectares. It has attracted 80 high-value manufacturing tenants, including Matsushita, Sumitomo, Seagate, Infineon and EPCOS. The WSIP has contributed significantly to Wuxi’s socio-economic development, creating 50,000 positions for highly skilled workers, mostly in semiconductor industries. The WSIP also exported US$5 billion worth of goods in 2008, accounting for 20% of Wuxi’s total exports.

To the local government, the WSIP is more than an industrial park. It is credited with opening up Wuxi’s economy, acting as a bridgehead to direct international capital into the Wuxi New District (WND) and the entire municipality. The WND was formed as one of the seven districts in Wuxi in 1992 and initially focused primarily on its industrialisation programme. In the past three years, the WND experienced rapid growth when it restructured its industries using WSIP as its exemplary model and established itself as the national base for high-tech products and advanced manufacturing, developing complementary specialised parks for science and technology, high-tech products and software engineering. Meanwhile in 2008, Wuxi’s GDP of US$63.8 billion was ranked eighth in China and second at the provincial level.  Its GDP per capita was US$10,000, the highest in the Jiangsu Province.

Over the years, the WSIP has enhanced its business model to gradually align with the economic and urban restructuring of the WND, evolving from a traditional industrial park to a diversified sustainable urban development.  In addition to its 243,000 square metres of factory space, it has also developed office space and supporting amenities covering 42,000 square metres.

In this next phase of development, the WSIP will co-develop a Business and IT park offering 92,000 square metres of gross floor area, with Hong Kong-listed First Shanghai Group. This is expected to attract interest from innovative and high value-added service industry players. Phase one of the project is scheduled for completion in early 2010. In addition, the WSIP will commence construction of a mixed-use residential and commercial development on 14,000 square metres of land by the first quarter of 2010.

The WSIP will also build on its strategic alliance with Suntech Power, for which a 107,000-square metre build-and-lease customised factory was built in 2008. NYSE-listed Suntech Power is a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative solar energy solutions. A second such build-and-lease factory spanning 130,000 square metres will be constructed in 2010. In addition, the WSIP is collaborating with the WND government and Suntech Power on a 400-hectare Solar City photovoltaic park. 40 hectares of land belonging to the WSIP will be used to kick-start the first-phase development of the Solar City.

On the occasion of the WSIP’s 15th Anniversary celebrations, the joint venture partners also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) reaffirming their close relationship and stating their intention to explore widening their cooperation, to include more sustainable urban developments as China continues to develop economically.

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NG Lay San (Ms)
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Mary Ann CHAN (Ms)
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ABOUT SEMBCORP INDUSTRIES

Sembcorp Industries is a leading utilities and marine group. With facilities with over 3,300 megawatts of installed power capacity and over 4 million cubic metres of water under management per day, Sembcorp is a trusted provider of essential energy and water solutions to customers in Singapore, China, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and the Middle East. In addition, it is a world leader in marine & offshore engineering, as well as an established developer of integrated industrial townships in Asia.

Sembcorp Industries has total assets of over S$9 billion and employs around 6,500 employees. Listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange, it is a component stock of the Straits Times Index and several MSCI indices.

ABOUT SEMBCORP IN CHINA

Sembcorp is actively involved in supporting the sustainable development of China. It has cogeneration, water and wastewater treatment plants in Shanghai, Nanjing, Zhangjiagang, Tianjin and Shenyang. In Jiangsu, it serves the water and wastewater treatment needs of companies in the Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park and Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone. Its Zhangjiagang wastewater treatment plant is the first in China to treat concentrated wastewater directly from customers without pre-treatment.  This and a further water reclamation project in Zhangjiagang have been recognised as Government-to-Government showcases for integrated water management.  Sembcorp has also promoted the development of Jiangsu through co-owning the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park and the Wuxi-Singapore Industrial Park. It is currently co-developing the Sino-Singapore Nanjing Eco High-Tech Island, Nanjing’s largest foreign collaborative development.

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