Singapore a ‘solid economic partner’ of France, says foreign trade minister
THE many problems that the world faces today cannot be solved unilaterally, with unilateralism which is why France is a firm believer in a multilateral approach and maintaining strong links with its partners abroad, a visiting French minister has said.
Olivier Becht, the minister in charge of Foreign Trade, Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad, made this point at the end of a 10-day visit to the Indo-Pacific region that took him to Australia, Indonesia and Singapore.
“The link between all the meetings I had in these different countries is France’s Indo-Pacific strategy,” he told reporters at a press conference in Singapore that was also attended by France’s new ambassador to Singapore, Minh-di Tang.
“We must have a good relationship with all the countries in the Indo-Pacific, and it’s important that we share the same values and the same vision of multilateralism,” said the 46-year-old, who took on his current role in July.
He added that maintaining the multilateralism is a team effort that demands respect for international law and for the maritime passages in the region that facilitate trade.
Becht, who described Singapore on his Twitter account as an “economic and financial hub with global reach (and) a solid economic partner of France”, said the 2 countries already have a strong bilateral and trade relationship, and that the scope to work together in the coming years is wide.
Going by the latest available figures, Singapore receives nearly two-thirds of French foreign direct investment (FDI) into South-east Asia, with a stock of 12.2 billion euros (S$17 billion). Globally, the city-state is now the fourth-largest destination for French FDI.
Singapore is France’s top trade and investment partner in Asean. France is Singapore’s second-largest European Union trading partner in goods, and the fourth-largest in services.
Singapore’s Temasek Holdings has invested more than 2 billion euros in France since 2014, and Becht – who met the investment company’s chief executive Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara on Monday – said the pair discussed the possibility of increasing Temasek’s investments in France, as well as the ongoing partnership between Temasek and various French start-ups.
“The talent of our entrepreneurs, the reforms and the diversity of our economic ecosystems have convinced Temasek to strengthen its presence in France,” Becht wrote in a separate post on Twitter earlier this week.
There are about 770 subsidiaries of French companies now in Singapore, with a cumulative turnover of US$37 billion and nearly 42,000 people on their payroll. Singapore is home to more than 300 French entrepreneurs and about 250 teacher-researchers.
When asked by The Business Times about the sectors in France that Singapore companies should invest in, Becht cited 3 main areas – digitalisation, the energy transition, and mobility.
“These are the 3 big areas of cooperation between France and Singapore. On digitalisation, we can work together in artificial intelligence and applications on e-commerce. On energy, we can invent new technologies to produce hydrogen, and work together to have more sustainable capacity for energy storage. And on mobility, there is a lot to do together on smart cities, and come up with a more integrated programme for mobility,” he said.
While in Singapore, Becht met Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong to discuss France’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific and the reform of the World Trade Organization, among other issues.
He also met Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran, and they adopted the France-Singapore Digital and Green Partnership (DGP) workplan, covering areas such as a co-innovation programme to support joint R&D projects by Singapore and French companies, cybersecurity labelling schemes, artificial intelligence and heritage conservation.
The DGP is an economic bilateral initiative that was signed in March this year to create new growth opportunities for French and Singapore companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.
Becht also met separately with Maliki Osman, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Foreign Minister; he also visited the Port of Singapore, and met ST Engineering chief executive Vincent Chong.
