We know that there was pressure rising as allies to clamp down on China to
block its access to chimps. The Netherlands, for instance, the
latest one to come on board. And just wondering, how is Singapore
positioning itself as US China? Tensions rise
while the U.S. China relationship is one of the most
consequential bilateral relationship. There will, of course, when we have a
success, it has serious consequences for the rest of the world.
And Singapore, as you know, have always wanted to do business with both China
and us. So it is in our interests to ensure that
we continue to uphold this multilateral opening rule space heating system that
have benefited all of us for many decades.
And we will continue to benefit us. Every Greek are able to maintain this
collaborative environment and a stable and secure environment for businesses to
seize the opportunities and continue to grow.
And therefore, ISE is, you know, Singapore's interests and the interests
of the rest of the world to ensure that US and China will have a stable and
secure relationship as well as a constructive forum.
So I think that recent positioning. How are you positioning, minister?
Are you having to tweak, pivot your economic strategy?
Obviously, we will need to continue to adjust our economic approach to
encourage companies to make sure that they understand the concerns and
interests of both the US and China so that they are able to position and sub
themselves to seize opportunities and adjust to the needs and interests and
the concerns of both countries. And we will also do our best to
facilitate dialogue, engagement between us and China through our businesses,
through our officials, so that we can foster a collaborative relationship.
And indeed, there are many areas they think will require cooperation globally
and such as climate change. I think all of us have to do our part
and find ways to look together so that we can all achieve our climate change
goals. Minister, we know that the US is
imposing export controls. How worried is Singapore about it?
I'm just wondering if that could be a trickle down effect given that the
country is exposed to all the various countries.
It is an open economy. It is indeed.
I think all of us are concerned and watching this development very closely.
I think although the export controls are not targeted at Singapore, our companies
are concerned that they do have their products and services.
They may be dependent on the US technology and they are watching this
very closely, but will be working with our companies here.
And we have been assuring them that we will work with them and find solutions
to address the challenges that come along and is going to probably extend
beyond just chips because they are also looking at biotechnology as well as
other technology that may be of implication.
Minister, the other big concern for the world is the Fed and the tightening it
is embarking on. Some are saying that terminal rate could
get to 6 percent, which is a game changer in your view.
How is that shaping your assessment of whether we could see a soft or a hard
landing? Where is the US economy headed?
I think the jury's still out. We will have to watch.
The development in countries around the world are looking very hard to ensure
that on one hand, manage the inflation. On the other hand, they need to continue
to support the economy as much from Covid-19.
And Singapore is no exception. We are also working very hard with our
companies. One key message that we are sharing with
our enterprises here is that they need to continue the transformation journey.
They need to move from a lower productivity activities to higher
productivity, higher value add activities.
This way they will then be able to manage the cost increases.
At the same time, continue to grow their businesses.
What new risks do you see emerging from the Fed being so aggressive?
Might you have to rethink perhaps even your GDP targets?
We are watching very carefully and therefore we continue to adjust our GDP
projection because we will need to take into account not just Singapore's
environment, the global environment, guessing a boys business, how we depend
on the rules of the world to fuel Singapore's economic growth.
So we are watching that development very closely, but we have also been rolling
out initiatives and measures to support and help businesses cope with the
challenges of a high interest rate as well as high operating cost.
So I think these are issues that we will continue to do to work with our
enterprises and the way we handle the Covid-19.
And I mean, over the last three years, I have also illustrated how the government
is working with our businesses to cope with the various challenges, including
supply chain constraints imposed by Covid-19.
And therefore, I think our businesses are quite confident that they will be
able to work with the government in tackling emerging challenges.