The Packaging Cluster travels to Singapore to position itself internationally and close strategic alliances

Submitted by Alina Danieles… on 31 May 2017

The individual cluster agenda has made possible 4 meetings with technology centers and public administrations in Singapore.

Packaging Cluster participated this week in the strategic mission to Singapore organized by the Generalitat de Catalunya, through ACCIÓ – the agency for the competitiveness of the company – for 22 Catalan clusters. The mission, framed in the program Catalonia Clusters of ACCIÓ, has been the one that has had more clusters since this initiative was born.

The objective of the trip, which began on Monday and has lasted until this Friday, has been for the Catalan clusters to be trained, position themselves at an international level and close strategic alliances. To this end, all the clusters have held more than 100 meetings with companies, representatives of Singapore’s government, technology centers and economic agencies of the country.

In this sense, the Packaging Cluster agenda has first consisted of a shared agenda with representatives of the Singapore government, such as the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the National Research Foundation – responsible for the country’s cluster innovation program – or the agency A*Star, which develops the government’s R&D policy. It has also held meetings with the Economic Development Board, responsible for attracting foreign investment in the country, or the Intellectual Property Intermediary. Likewise, the collective agenda of all the clusters has also included training days to learn about the business opportunities and business reality of the country, visits to subsidiaries of Catalan companies in Singapore and a networking day with the Catalan business community residing in the country.

20170511_111549_resized Visit to the leaders of the Institute of Research and Engineering of materials, where we share challenges and trends of the industry.

Finally, during the whole day May 11th, the Packaging Cluster met with 4 entities related to the Packaging industry, where two of them were shared with other clusters. Thus, the visits were to two departments of the A*Star technology center, such as IMRE, Institute of Material Research and Engineering and SIMTech, Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology.

FIRC The three food cluster Cluster Nutrition and Health (AINS), Cluster Foodservice and the Packaging Cluster visit FIRC.

As well as visiting the FIRC, Food Innovation & Resource Center which was launched in 2007 as a joint initiative between the Singapore Polytechnic Institute and Spring Singapore. Its aim is to provide food enterprises with technical expertise in new product and process development including packaging, shelf life evaluation and market testing.

And finally the National Environment Agency (NEA) public body responsible for improving and maintaining a clean and green environment in Singapore. The NEA develops and leads environmental initiatives and programs through its partnership with People, Public and Private sectors.

With a 2% economic growth in 2016, Singapore is considered by international rankings as one of the most convenient countries in the world to do business. It has the second port of the world with more container traffic and an industry weight around 20% of its GDP, with business opportunities in the water, electronic, biomedical and chemical sectors. In 2016 there were 1,683 Catalan companies that have exported to Singapore, 6% more than in 2015.

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