Swiss-Singapore ties growing stronger: envoy

SWITZERLAND and Singapore continue to enjoy excellent bilateral relations despite the situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Switzerland's Ambassador to Singapore, Fabrice Filliez, says: "Important high-level meetings were arranged between Switzerland and Singapore's authorities, and we stayed in regular and dynamic contact about Covid-19 developments in both countries through a series of themed events and conferences."

"In August 2020, together with the European Union delegation, its member states and Norway, we held a virtual exchange with then minister for trade and industry Chan Chun Sing. Among others, we discussed Singapore's foreign workforce policy, its travel restrictions and the city-state's importance as a hub," he adds.

In September 2020, the President of the Swiss Confederation Simonetta Sommaruga and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong engaged in an exchange over a phone call.

"Comparing notes on Covid-19 and discussing a series of bilateral and multilateral matters, the two leaders agreed on the importance for small countries like Switzerland and Singapore to remain open to the world. They also expressed the wish to strengthen bilateral relations in the areas of digitalisation and cybersecurity," says Mr Filliez in an interview.

In the same month, the 5th Swiss-Singapore Financial Dialogue took place in a virtual format. The Swiss delegation and Singapore representatives compared notes on how the two economies were affected by Covid-19, and discussed issues ranging from green finance and stablecoins, to the international finance agenda. In December, Switzerland engaged again with the annual Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF).

"We see the SFF as a unique opportunity to showcase our strengths as an innovative and competitive financial centre. In this edition, Switzerland contributed with satellite events and a virtual Swiss pavilion with seven Swiss exhibitors, including SIX and SIX Digital Exchange, which are two distinct legal corporations, with SIX being the Swiss Stock Exchange and SIX Digital Exchange building the world's first regulated digital market infrastructure", says Mr Filliez.

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At the World FinTech Festival in Switzerland, which was a digital event from Zurich on Dec 7, 2020, Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer delivered the keynote speech and officially launched a new information platform, finance.swiss, aiming to highlight the framework conditions and other qualities that make Switzerland's financial sector such an attractive business location.

At a second event, the SFF Impact Summit, Switzerland invited key players in the field of green and sustainable finance to present their initiatives.

"In March this year, the situation allowed me and my deputy Nikolas Sturchler Gonzenbach to visit Brunei Darussalam. The week-long trip, assisted by Singapore's reciprocal green lane with Brunei, was highly successful in facilitating a dialogue with Bruneian ministers and senior government officials on topics such as the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brunei, post-Covid economic recovery, and multilateral tax and finance matters," Mr Filliez adds.

A significant recent event with high-level exchanges was the 50th anniversary of the St Gallen Symposium in May 2021, which took on a hybrid approach this year, with the theme "Trust Matters".

"With Singapore serving as the only physical hub to the international event, it was a great honour for me to give a welcome address in person to the participants in Singapore.

"Swiss Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter also joined a virtual panel discussion on how to better reconnect our world with then transport minister Ong Ye Kung," says Mr Filliez. The Swiss envoy says that the embassy was also initially preparing for the Special Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, which was to take place in Singapore this August.

"It was eventually cancelled due to the uncertainty around new variants which made it impossible to realise such a global meeting. This, despite the excellent support provided by the government of Singapore, notably its agencies - the Singapore Tourism Board and the Economic Development Board," says Mr Filliez.

The key asset in the past year has been adaptability across all affairs in the diplomatic realm, for the community, as well as for Swiss businesses in Singapore.

"As the pandemic evolves, so are we. We have been in regular discussion with the local authorities about Singapore's Covid-19 response and how it affects our companies and citizens based in the city," he adds.

"More recently, in a briefing on Covid-19 with Stanley Loh, Second Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the diplomatic corps in Singapore, we expressed the concerns of the Swiss community in Singapore with regard to varying difficult situations such as the re-entry permits for employment pass holders. We also asked for more predictability for the processes in place."

In the absence of face-to-face high-level meetings, technology was used to maintain close contacts.

"Digital technology had become an increasingly important part of everybody's lives even before the pandemic. The spread of Covid-19 and the intricacy of in-person meetings have accentuated this tendency immensely. We took this opportunity as a means to innovate and thrive in the organisation of events and ramped up our social media presence. In the past year, we have also rolled out a series of webinars, co-organised with other stakeholders," says Mr Filliez.

Among noteworthy virtual events in the past year were the Future of Food Technology and Innovation discussion with SG Innovate, and a Switzerland Global Enterprise webinar on Resilient Supply Chains.

In the context of Covid-19, the embassy engaged with the Centre for International Law (CIL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in co-organising a panel discussion on global access to Covid-19 vaccines in March 2021, and more recently, Mr Filliez participated in the Annual CIL-NUS International Law Year in Review and chaired a panel of experts on Covid-19 and international law.

"We also aired a podcast on nextrends Asia about Singapore's booming fintech ecosystem and its similarities with Zurich. Finally, we have increased activities on our embassy Facebook page (@SwissEmbassySingapore) and also on my Twitter account (@SwissAmbSGP)."

"In light of the many fast-changing travel and social distancing restrictions both in Switzerland and Singapore, these tools have become essential for our community to follow the latest developments related to the pandemic, and also to stay updated on embassy events and activities."

The Swiss ambassador says that from a political perspective, the high- level virtual meeting between the President of the Swiss Confederation Ms Sommaruga and PM Lee was an outstanding milestone.

In this context, they welcomed the close cooperation between Singapore and Switzerland as co-chairs of the "Friends of COVAX Facility", supporting vaccine multilateralism to ensure affordable, fair and equitable access to safe Covid-19 vaccines for all.