Lecturers and participants of the outbound training in Singapore

On 26 Oct 2014,  Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co., Ltd (GKC Co), Guangzhou Development District (GDD) Organization Department and Singapore’s Intellectual Property Academy (IPA) jointly organized an outbound training session in Singapore, further enhancing Sino-Singapore cooperation and exchanges in the area of intellectual property. The 14-day training session explored the theme of “National Intellectual Property Operating Platform and Talent Development,” exposing participants to learn about Singapore’s mature intellectual property planning, legislation and management system.

Participants visit IPOS 101 Department – Intellectual Property Service Center

Ms Chiam Lu Lin, Deputy Chief Executive of IPOS and Executive Director of the Intellectual Property Academy (IPA), Dr Eric Gan, Director of IPOS Capability Development Department, Mr Candra Daruman, Deputy Director of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Singapore Office and others attended the training session and shared their experience in the field of intellectual property with the participants.

Group Discussions   Ms Chiam emphasized the importance of the role of intellectual property as a lever for national economic transformation and upgrading. She also placed high hopes on the development of intellectual property projects in GKC. “GKC serves as a model of Sino-Singapore cooperation; IPOS and IPA view with great importance the collaboration with Guangdong and especially GKC. The intellectual property project will serve as a platform that further promotes and deepens Sino-Singapore collaboration and brings about more opportunities for cooperation.”

During the 14-day training session, participants visited the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), Intellectual Property Academy (IPA), National University of Singapore (NUS), World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) Singapore Office and other relevant intellectual property offices. Throughout the training sessions, participants learned of Singapore’s advanced intellectual property management systems and reflected on the many improvements possible that could be adapted into China’s intellectual property policies. The participants noted that the training session will be highly useful and beneficial in their future career in the area of intellectual property. “The training sessions organized by GKC Co, GDD’s Organization department and IPA were very successful and fruitful. We hope to gain more advanced international experience, attract more international resources, and introduce intellectual property policies into China. We also encourage our participants to summarize the results of the training and apply the new knowledge learned in their work” says Mr Chen Xiaohua, the team leader of the delegation and Director of the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Luogang District.

Mr Ang Boon Peng, Vice President of GKC Co’s Strategic Collaboration department, noted that the outbound training provided a great opportunity for GDD’s leaders to understand and learn from Singapore’s experience. Through the outbound training, the participants will gain a deeper insight into Singapore’s management system in the field of intellectual property and also develop a broader sense of GKC’s future development. He also encouraged the participants to share the results of the training with their colleagues.

GKC has served as an important strategic platform for Sino-Singapore cooperation ever since its establishment. From January 2012 till present, GKC Co and GDD has jointly organized a series of forums and training seminars, with areas covering master planning, social management, politics & law, E-commerce, intellectual property, with an accumulated 4000 participants from corporate and government departments. The recent training targeted the field of intellectual property collaboration between China and Singapore, a substantial act of promoting GKC as a model Sino-Singapore collaboration of the “Intellectual Property Pilot Zone.”