Opening Remarks by Mr Tan Poh Teck, Deputy Executive Director, SBF on 13 February 2009,
11:00am - 2:00pm, at SBF Seminar Room 2, Level 21
His Excellency Holger Standertskjoid (pronounced Hold-Girl Stand-Der-Hold), Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Commission
Excellencies
Mr Joakim Ihrcke, (pronounced Joe-Kim Eye-Ker) President of the European Chamber of Commerce, Singapore
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
1. Good Morning and welcome to the Insiders' Views of Doing Business with Europe Seminar.
2. I would also like to congratulate the European Commission Delegation in Singapore on the launch of your EU-Singapore Trade and Investment booklet 2008.
3. Singapore and Europe has very close ties in business as evidenced by our trade and investment statistics. The EU is Singapore's second-largest trading partner after Malaysia. In 2007, bilateral trade between the EU and Singapore reached S$97.5 billion, a stark increase of 49.8% from S$65.1 billion in 2003.
4. Within ASEAN, Singapore is the EU's largest trading partner, accounting for about a third of all trade between the EU and ASEAN. And Singapore is privileged to be the regional hub to over 2,400 European MNCs and SMEs that have established business operations in Singapore.
5. Similarly, Singapore companies can build on complimentary strengths with their European counterparts to tap on the rising dynamism of the EU market.
6. A good number of companies have achieve success in Europe and we are honoured today, to have companies who will share their experiences with us. I hope such sharing would encourage more Singapore companies to venture out in to the exciting European Union.
7. On this note, it is my pleasure to invite His Excellency, Holger Standertskjoid (pronounced Hold-Girl Stand-Der-Hold), Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Commission to address us.
8. Your Excellency please.
Holger Standertskjöld
Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Singapore
Opening remarks by Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Singapore Holger Standertskjöld
Insiders' View of Doing Business with Europe
Singapore, 13 February 2009
Mr Tan (Deputy Executive Director, SBF),
Mr Joachim Ihrcke (Chairman Eurocham),
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning.
1. I am heartened to see so many of you here at this event which has been organized to remind us that especially in a downturn we have to look at and prepare for the future. We will also today launch our new booklet on the EU-Singapore Trade and Investment relationship.
2. Some days back when I spoke with a friend about the economic situation he said, the Chinese phrase that is used to describe 'crisis' "wei jih", shares the same character with the phrase 'opportunity' "jih hui". They both contain the character "jih", which he interpreted as looking for opportunities in times of crisis. I would like to keep this as the building block for our event today - opportunity - "jih hui".
3. "AN ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT WHERE WE SHOULD REFRAIN FROM PROTECTIONISM"
4. Indeed, we are faced with a dire economic situation that requires us to actively search for new opportunities and new markets. We should protect openness, and open market conditions. We have to make the case for positive engagement by countries and businesses in the global economy.
5. Open economies are critical to everyone's economic well-being, be it in Europe or in Singapore. Europe is made of producers and innovators, but above all, like Singaporeans, Europeans are traders and investors. In a global market, with global supply chains, we need to make sure that import and export channels remain open. The growing inter-dependence between economies means that all have a stake in one another's prosperity and development. As new markets develop, our long-term prosperity depends on our ability to benefit from these new opportunities to invest and to trade.
6. The economic crisis we face underlines, not undermines this. Trade and investment flows in the world are declining, especially since the third quarter of 2008. However, 2008 has overall been a good year for EU-Singapore trade but we should not hide the deterioration seen over the recent months in the global economy. Demand is falling in developed markets as consumer spending contracts. We will probably see very soon a similar weakening in emerging economies.
7. It remains to be seen how severe the downturn will be. But our policy response must minimise the damage and help chart the way out. The risk, particularly if the downturn is severe, is that countries restrict markets in an attempt to isolate themselves or seek to blame others for the difficulties facing their economies. The EU is convinced that this is inappropriate. Not because openness is an end in itself, but because experience has taught us that it is the most effective way to achieve our broad economic, social and indeed political goals. We all know that protectionism makes recovery harder. However, sometimes in the face of crisis we risk throwing away what we know.
8. "A NEED TO LOOK FOR NEW MARKET OPPORTUNITIES"
9. The fundamentals for both the EU's and Singapore's economies are strong, our political situations
stable and our financial systems sound. We do not need protectionism.
10. What we need is to encourage companies to use the difficult times ahead to prepare themselves for the future world economic recovery. European and Singaporean companies, which in the main are financially sound, should reengineer and reinvent themselves to emerge stronger but also do their utmost to capture new market opportunities in the world.
11. "EUROPE AS SINGAPORE'S SECOND TRADING PARTNER IS KEY TO SINGAPORE'S FUTURE ECONOMIC RECOVERY"
12. And Europe as Singapore's second trading partner is a key market for Singapore and key
for its future economic recovery. Singapore is also in itself important to EU.
13. Indeed, as you will find in the EU-Singapore Trade and Investment booklet that
I have the pleasure to launch today, the importance of our relationship speaks for itself:
- The EU is by far the world's largest economy: 31% of world's GDP, 500 million consumers, the world's largest trading block, the world's largest outward investor, the world's prime investment destination, a single market, has a single tariff, and a single set of rules;
- The EU is Singapore's second largest trading partner, slightly behind Malaysia and well ahead of China and the US whose trade with Singapore has decreased in 2008 while EU's one has increased by 7.1% (S$97.5 billion in 2007, S$104 billion in latest figures for 2008);
- The EU is by far Singapore's largest source of Foreign Direct Investment
(S$130 billion, 35.7% of total FDI).
- The EU has also a considerable business presence (with more than 3,400 EU companies operating in Singapore), which is supported by EuroCham and the European National Business Groups.
- And the same could be said of Singapore's vital importance for the EU as Singapore is
by far the EU's number one trading partner in ASEAN.
14. Let me assure you, this is only the beginning of our privileged relationship. It has an even brighter future with the perspective of a FTA between the EU and ASEAN.
15. This strong trade relationship that the EU has with Singapore is of particular significance in the current economic downturn and I am confident it will be even more so in the future.
16. However, the relationship is built on the activity of individuals and companies, companies that have seen the opportunity gone out of their well-known zone of operation, often taken big risks, but been successful. We will today hear more about some such experiences, which I hope will inspire us all.
17. I wish you all the best in your efforts to grab the opportunities.
18. Thank you.
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