German-Singapore business ties grow stronger

THE biggest latest development in German-Singapore bilateral relations has been the introduction of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) for travel between the two countries in September, which is expected to give a big boost to the already growing ties between the two countries.

"When news broke that Singapore would allow direct flights from Germany to pilot the return to quarantine-free travel for vaccinated passengers it generated joyful anticipation on both sides," says Germany's Ambassador to Singapore, Dr Norbert Riedel, in an interview with The Business Times on the occasion of the Day of German Unity on Oct 3, which is the country's national day.

Germany has already been open for quarantine-free travel from Singapore since last year. It was remarkable how Singapore was brought back into the news in Germany following the announcement of the VTL scheme.

It is a long-awaited opportunity to revive business relations, the German envoy adds. Germans in Singapore can reunite again with their families and he could clearly notice a rising "Wanderlust" among Singaporeans.

"It is a unique chance for deepened people-to-people exchanges. Germany is well prepared to welcome Singaporeans as the government is following a very similar strategic approach in its fight against the virus. However, the country still has to achieve the same highly impressive vaccination rate as Singapore. It is our common hope that a successful implementation of this pilot paves the way for expansion to other countries in Europe and South-east Asia."

The opportunity to travel is essential for economic exchange with Germany and the European Union (EU) far beyond Singapore itself, says the German envoy.

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Altogether, more than 10,000 European companies are active in Singapore. The city-state remains the hub to the Asean region and thus an essential entry point for the EU. Both organisations depend on connectivity and trade in order to move into the post-pandemic world successfully.

"It is true that companies successfully managed to run their business activities throughout the pandemic in a virtual environment. And yet no online meeting can replace personal and direct contacts. In this sense travel remains key to revive our economies and move forward with the necessary changes on our joint path towards a green economy," Dr Riedel tells BT.

"Thus, we are grateful for the pilot VTL as it will also provide a type of best practice for restarting travel in a calibrated manner between some of the best airports in the world. We also consider the VTL as an appreciation of the strong bilateral economic relationship between Germany and Singapore," he adds.

More than 2,000 German companies are based in Singapore employing more than 45,000 people and doing business with the Asean countries, sometimes even the whole of the APAC region.

"No doubt the ongoing travel restrictions continue to pose one of the biggest hindrances to them. However, I hear from many entrepreneurs that they could have performed even better if supply chains were not interrupted or raw materials were readily available - a topic we continue to work on," says the German ambassador.

He highlights that the good news is that the past year has seen a constant stream of new major investments in Singapore by German companies or other related initiatives such as the set-up of innovation hubs or extension of vocational training opportunities by Airbus, Infineon, Siemens, Bosch and TÜV Süd.

The most prominent one was the decision by vaccine maker BioNTech to set up its regional headquarters in Singapore with Siemens providing the latest automation and digitalisation technologies for the new production site.

Turning to bilateral relations, Dr Riedel tells BT that the ties between his country and Singapore are close and good, and have continued to grow even amid the ongoing global pandemic.

"The need for intense coordination and exchange on both bilateral issues and global challenges has led to a flourishing of interactions my team and I at the embassy have probably never witnessed before. We cannot allow the pandemic to break us as we brace ourselves for the radical transformations ahead.

"We have seen several votes of confidence in Singapore and the region via significant investment decisions across the past year - from semiconductor production facilities, new service or research facilities, to the decision by vaccine maker BioNTech to move its regional headquarters to Singapore. Many more among them are investing actively in the green economy and further towards Industrie 4.0 technologies."

He adds that scientific cooperation projects and numerous university-to-university partnerships give evidence of another very active field in the good bilateral relations.

The embassy tries to support such joint activities wherever it can such as a virtual seminar together with A*Star for scientists working in the field of food technology to exchange ideas and identify future joint projects.

At the political level, while the pandemic has brought personal contacts to a minimum, Dr Riedel says that Germany and Singapore have never had such an intensity of contacts both at the ministerial or state minister level as well as the working level. For instance, the defence ministers of Germany and Singapore met several times over the past year via video conferences. At the same, the foreign ministers of both countries met both virtually as well as in person during a G-20 meeting in Italy.

The German ambassador says that Germany and Singapore collaborate in various multilateral fora, such as the United Nations, G-20 or the Alliance for Multilateralism, and contribute to global initiatives such as the vaccine platform Covax which is procuring and financing vaccines for developing countries.

"The global immunisation programme helps to curb the spread of the new variants of the virus. We always have to keep in mind that no one is safe until everyone is safe.

"The German Government is supporting the global efforts to fight the pandemic to the tune of 2.2 billion euros (S$3.48 billion) and is thus one of the biggest contributors. For example, every fifth euro for the vaccination campaign comes from Germany," he adds.

For e-version, go to www.sphcountrysupplement.sg