Speaking after the APEC meetings, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also says he hopes for progress in an Indo-Pacific trade deal which has been stalled by US politics.
There are opportunities even in a complicated global environment and Singapore should put itself in a position to seize them, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday (Nov 17) as he emphasised the need for the country to remain open to the world.
Speaking to reporters after the close of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco, Mr Lee touched on subjects like an Indo-Pacific trade deal and how Singapore can remain competitive.
"Even in a complicated world, there are opportunities and we are not the last in queue to reach those opportunities. In fact, we are quite high up the list, and we should get further up," said Mr Lee.
It is a message the Prime Minister has been focused on during his six-day working trip to California. He officiated the launch of an Enterprise Singapore Overseas Centre to facilitate Singapore companies' entry to the US, visited the offices of tech giants Apple and Google, as well as met US business leaders on top of the official APEC agenda.
He also met Singapore entrepreneurs who have expanded their businesses or founded start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area at a reception for overseas Singaporeans.
Mr Lee said it is "particularly encouraging" to see Singaporeans starting their own companies in the US, then bringing their business to Singapore and starting branches back home.
"So that is one way to do it – to go out to the world and do business where the world is," Mr Lee said.
"But the other way is to bring the companies into Singapore, and make sure that Singapore stands out as an environment which is special, where they can do things they cannot do elsewhere, and therefore they want to come to Singapore."
Referring to the US head honchos he met at a business roundtable on Wednesday, Mr Lee said: "Around the world, their business goes up, goes down, but in Singapore, they are stable and they are growing and recruiting some more, and not just increasing headcount but bringing in functions to Singapore from elsewhere in the region ...
"Singapore is a place where they can do it, and they think they can do it better in Singapore than they can do elsewhere."
Likely attending his last APEC summit as Prime Minister, Mr Lee, who has said he will step down next year, noted that the global mood has changed since the trade and economic forum was started 30 years ago.
Singapore now has to navigate a less open, less predictable and less multilateral environment, he said, but it has no choice but to continue depending on free trade and to work with other countries.
INDO-PACIFIC TRADE DEAL
One sign of how the world has become more complicated lies in the various regional economic groupings that have emerged - from the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
The CPTPP is the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, from which former President Donald Trump withdrew as soon as he took office in 2017.
IPEF, launched by the Biden administration in Tokyo last May, is intended to offer US allies an alternative to China's growing commercial presence across the Asia-Pacific.
Unlike traditional trade blocs, there is no plan for IPEF members to negotiate tariffs and ease market access - which US voters are increasingly wary of.
While IPEF sealed agreements on clean energy, anti-corruption measures and supply chain resiliency at APEC, no deal was reached on a trade "pillar", to the disappointment of member countries.
To a question on whether IPEF will continue to "struggle" to deliver trade benefits, Mr Lee said that trade is "inherently a difficult subject in many countries but in the US particularly".
"That is why the TPP eventually could not include the US, it became the CPTPP without them. The US, knowing this difficulty, launched the IPEF exercise in order to talk about trade and other issues but without actually getting down to market-sensitive measures, which would be very difficult to get through in this political environment," he said.
Mr Lee said that while there has been "substantial progress" on the IPEF trade pillar, the political situation in Washington could make things difficult.
The US heads into an election year in 2024, with Mr Biden and Mr Trump potentially up for a rematch.
"I think that looking at the state of play of the political scene in the US, they do not feel that they are able to push across the finishing line yet," said Mr Lee.
"We are keeping this issue warm and we hope that when the stars line up in a better position, we will be able to make more significant progress."
US-CHINA TIES
On the issue of US-China ties, Mr Lee the high-stakes meeting between Mr Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of APEC means there is a "better chance of keeping things on an even keel".
In their first face-to-face meeting in a year, Mr Xi and Mr Biden had agreed to open a presidential hotline and resume military-to-military communications.
However, simmering differences remain, particularly over Taiwan.
US-China relations are not amenable to "quick fixes", Mr Lee noted.
"These are deep differences in perspectives and views and interests and philosophies, and it's also a contest for influence for a spot in the sun in the world," he said.
"At the same time, they do need to work together because there are many problems which can't be solved without both America and China participating together. And so the two sides need to talk in order to manage the differences. In order to be able to cooperate when you need to cooperate."
While the Xi-Biden meeting was an important step, both sides have to stay in close touch with one another, Mr Lee said.
"Because as you know, you have a meeting, you have understanding, and then things happen and not everything which happens is anticipated, predictable, and then one thing leads to another and you are in a new situation, and you have to deal with new problems," said Mr Lee.
"So I think they have to stay in close touch with one another. There will be issues which will arise – there are elections coming next year in the US and in Asia too, there are various hotspots which there can be developments."
Source: CNA
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<p>Time: 2024 By: Ministry of Industry and Trade</p>
