Editor's Note: The 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will be held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on November 18.
From Singapore to Sydney, from Jakarta to Bangkok, from Mexico City to Lima—Guangdong's links with APEC economies have never been just lines on a map. For 37 consecutive years, Guangdong has been Singapore's largest provincial-level trading partner in China. In Thailand, new energy vehicles made in Guangdong are entering households across the country. In Indonesia, industrial parks with Guangdong participation are helping reshape the local industrialization landscape. In Peru, the direct shipping route from Guangzhou's Nansha to Chancay Port has brought the two sides of the Pacific closer than ever.
Behind these figures and cooperation are real people, real stories that cross mountains and seas, and friendships that have grown with mutual benefit.
Recently, a team from South visited HDB towns in Singapore, high-tech parks in Malaysia, new industrial towns in Vietnam, fishery cold-chain terminals in Papua New Guinea and distribution hubs for trendy goods in South Korea. It also visited enterprises and communities from APEC economies in Guangdong, recording from a first-person perspective the real picture of Guangdong and its "friends" moving from goods trade to industrial cooperation, and then to people-to-people bonds and cultural integration.
Today, as the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting enters the two-month countdown, we are launching "Guangdong Meets APEC," a series of special reports, featuring a sustainable Asia-Pacific community with a shared future under the APEC framework.
Guangdong and Singapore are nearly 2,700 kilometers apart, but the two places have long been intertwined.
"Guangdong has been Singapore's top provincial trading partner for 36 years for a reason," says Ong Ye Kung, Singapore's Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health, as well as Co-Chair of the Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council.
This year, the partnership takes on added significance as Shenzhen prepares to host the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. This serves as a timely reminder that bilateral ties are part of a wider regional vision.
The vision is already taking shape on the ground. In Singapore's Punggol district, autonomous robotaxis developed by WeRide, a Guangzhou-based company, are ferrying residents along three routes that connect shopping malls, housing estates and a polyclinic.
"We are complementing the public transport service to improve connectivity and provide better transportation alternatives for local residents," says Kerry Xu, General Manager of WeRide Singapore. The company plans to deploy thousands of robotaxis across Southeast Asia in the coming years.
Midea, another major company from Guangdong, is providing centralized cooling solutions for Singapore's public housing. This approach eliminates the need for bulky outdoor units and helps save energy. "The market pushes us to keep improving. It's a true two-way exchange," says Adam Yu, the company's regional director for Singapore and Malaysia.
The flow goes both ways. Lion TCR, a Singapore-born biotech company, set up operations in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City and completed a 300-million-yuan Series B financing round through the Guangdong-Singapore Cooperation Council platform.
"It offers a practical, workable mechanism to help Singaporean companies establish a presence in Guangzhou," says Dr. Peng Xiaoming, Lion TCR's CEO.
For Tanny Kong, a Singaporean who studied traditional Chinese medicine in Guangzhou for eight years, the connection is personal. "I've brought many habits from Guangzhou back with me," she says. "When I see Singaporean touches in Guangdong, I suddenly feel a sense of familiarity."
"Collaboration is like this," says Ong. "Good times bring win-win cooperation. Bad times call for mutual support. And if we work together, good times will return." With the APEC meeting in Shenzhen on the horizon, this message carries a new resonance for the entire region.
Reporter: Guo Zedong
Filming: Zeng Xiangxing, Deng Yingheng
Video editor: Deng Yingheng
Voiceover: Xie Hongzhou
Cover: Lai Meiya
