“THE floor is slippery, so watch your steps,” said George Yeo in his opening speech at the Asia Competitiveness Institute’s (ACI) annual research conference on Mar 8. While the former minister for foreign affairs was warning about the slick floor, he alluded as well to rising geopolitical uncertainties. Yeo is the founding patron of ACI.

A new era of escalating geopolitical tensions and trade disputes, highlighted by Sino-US trade tensions and technological rivalry, has transformed the world economy and led to a supply-chain reset.

Countries are increasingly engaging in de-risking strategies, such as re-shoring, near-shoring, or friend-shoring, to ameliorate vulnerabilities in their supply chains.