Where the grass is greener for Singapore firms

Channel NewsAsia, Today Online 10 May 08;

THINK green goods and services, and the European Union (EU) jumps to mind — for it accounts for more than a third of this burgeoning global market. And this is one region that Singapore businesses can look to for continued growth despite an anticipated economic slowdown worldwide.

The climate-friendly sector was one of four key areas of growth Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang highlighted during a speech on Friday, marking Europe Day. The others were manufacturing, transport engineering and biomed.

Emphasising the growing importance of the Eurozone, Mr Lim said: "In this era of globalisation, the future direction that Europe chooses will have a profound impact on Singapore and on the rest of the world."

The EU is Singapore's second largest trading partner after Malaysia, with bilateral trade reaching an all-time high of $97.5 billion last year. According to some estimates, trade between the two will grow by 11 to 12 per cent this year.

Mr Holger Standertskjold, ambassador and head of the delegation, European Commission to Singapore, said: "The strongest (area) is environmental technology; Europe has the cutting-edge knowledge, cutting edge technology, and that is the one that is going to drive the development of environmental issues in the future.

"We are quite confident that this is an area where EU and Singapore can continue to work strongly in the years to come."

EU companies in Singapore said they are looking forward to better access when a free-trade pact kicks in.

Said Mr Standertskjold: "Singapore has free trade agreements with other countries such as the United States, Japan, and Australia. Under these, those countries ... in certain areas ... have better access to the market than the EU has. And we hope that we can redress this in the forthcoming free-trade agreement."

There are more than 7,000 European companies with a presence in Singapore.

The manufacturing sector accounts for a quarter of Singapore's GDP growth, and last year, European companies contributed to more than half of Singapore's manufacturing investment amounting to $8.4 billion.

Clean Energy with emphasis on solar energy, has been identified as a key growth area for Singapore. With the growing global expansion of the Clean Energy industry, Singapore is well placed to take the lead in this industry as an research and development base and as a provider of Clean Energy technologies and solutions.