Singapore wants to match European suppliers with locals

Trimmed by IPsoon Global Agency
Nov 10, 2007

The Singapore government wants to help European suppliers entering China to protect their intellectual property.

 

It does so by pairing them with reliable Singaporean subsuppliers that already are established in China.

 

"If you go into China as a small company without advice, you¡¯ll lose your shirt -- and your pants," said Timothy Toh, director of International Enterprise Singapore¡¯s office in Frankfurt. "In Singapore, we have a very regimented system. Infringements carry huge fines and repercussions to a company¡¯s image."

 

International Enterprise Singapore¡¯s Auto-Ignite program has a 15 million euro (150.6 million yuan) budget this year to help European companies quickly find experienced partners in China.

 

"You don´t want to waste time running around China looking for suppliers," Toh said.

 

He said the ideal candidate for the program, which was launched in Germany last November, is a supplier with sales of 10 million euros to 100 million euros (100.4 million yuan to 1 billion yuan).

 

IPsoon Global Agency comments:

 

Chinese intellectual property protection environment has improved to a great extent. While establishing and improving the intellectual property protection system, Chinese government shall explore the right path for investment management and establish an intellectual property supervision and management system in accordance with the economy. Chinese government work hard to secure the industry, so as to safeguard economical safety and stability.