Riau vegetables for Singapore consumers : a collaborative knowledge transfer project across the Straits of Malacca

The paper analyses a recent collaborative knowledge transfer project between the Republic of Singapore and the Republic of Indonesia across the Straits of Malacca. The initiative was aimed at supplying the city state at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula with green vegetables from Riau, Indonesia, and to provide technical assistance to Riau farmers on protected cultivation and post-harvest technologies. We reconstruct the bilateral evolution of the vegetable project in the context of the long-standing relationships between both countries vis-à-vis Singapore's reliance on food imports; identify the strategic partner organizations on both sides and their motivations to engage in this cross-country collaboration; present the project deliverables and outcomes; specify the type of knowledge transferred, technical assistance rendered and lessons learnt, and outline some of the challenges ahead for knowledge-intensive collaboration projects involving Singapore as emerging k-economy leader in the region and its resource-rich neighbor Indonesia. The paper is based on an unpublished technical cost-benefit analysis report entitled "Strategic Marketing of Vegetables from Riau" commissioned by Singapore's Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) in 2004 which was conducted by students from the Singapore Management University (SMU)1 under the auspices of the authors. New value added is added by re-interpreting the project scope, contexts and outcomes from a cross-country knowledge-transfer perspective.