Guangzhou's latest Knowledge City project will be "a progression" from two previous government-to-government projects between China and Singapore and benefit from them, its chief executive officer said on Monday.

"It's a progression of things that have happened and if each and every one is successful and serves its purpose, then we learn something. Without these two projects, we wouldn't have learnt as much as what we would have. We also benefited from the progression of the last two projects," said Tay Hun Kiat, CEO of the Guangzhou Knowledge City.

The Guangzhou project is located on a 123-sq-km site about 35 km away from the center of Guangdong's provincial capital. Its master developer is a joint venture company, the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co Ltd, with a registered capital of 4 billion yuan ($625 million). The company is 50 percent owned by Knowledge City Pte Ltd – under the Temasek Holdings-owned SingBridge International Singapore – and its other half owned by the Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co Ltd, which is under the Guangzhou Development District.

The project is being positioned as "a model and catalyst for the economic upgrading and environmental enhancement" of southern Guangdong province. Pillar industries identified include the IT convergence, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, energy and environmental technology, and education and training sectors.

The Suzhou Industrial Park and Tianjin Eco-city, which are the previous two collaborations between China and Singapore, were developed on a government-to-government level but the Guangzhou project will be driven by the private sector with support from the Chinese and Singapore authorities.

As of mid-September, the knowledge city had entered into at least five memoranda of understanding with multinational companies from Europe and Singapore to develop smart city and eco-city products and solutions, SingBridge said.

The project adopts a long-term approach and will take 20 years to complete, Tay said. It aims to provide 250,000 job opportunities and boast a population of half a million people.