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Singapore, Apr 25 (PTI) With the external conditions that have underpinned Singapore's past success coming apart, the trade-focused export-oriented island country is taking active steps internationally to shape its own destiny, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Friday. These include a potential free trade deal between the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (Asean) and the European Union (EU), greater Southeast Asian integration and more collaboration with its closest neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, he said in a video message. "We are now in the midst of the election campaign, but the work of governing Singapore does not stop," The Straits Times quoted PM Wong as saying.
"My team and I will never stop working – for you and for Singapore." The 52-year-old leader assured Singaporeans that in a changed world, his team's mission is clear: to steer Singapore through the storm, and secure a brighter future for Singaporeans. Singapore is headed to the polls on May 3, amid economic uncertainties such as the United States' "Liberation Day" tariff hikes that have roiled global markets, and a trade war likely involving China, a major market and resource hub for the city state, which maintains "very close" commercials dealings with both the American and Chinese industries.
The hustings are also the first for Wong as both prime minister and secretary-general of the People's Action Party (PAP) that has ruled the island city state ever since independence in 1965. In a four-minute message posted on his official YouTube channel, Wong said Singapore may be too small to influence global developments, but it is certainly not helpless. "We can take active steps to shape our own destiny," he said, noting that Singapore is far more capable and more connected today than at its independence.
The Singapore brand is well regarded, with the country enjoying a deep reservoir of international goodwill, he said. Many like-minded countries also share Singapore's desire to uphold an open, stable and rule-based global system, he added. In his recent discussions with counterparts from Malaysia, Japan, New Zealand, the EU and the United Kingdom, Wong and the heads of government in these economically prosperous regions agreed that while the US may be turning inwards, other countries need not follow.
Instead, there was a consensus on strengthening trade and investment links with one another, he said, starting with Singapore's closest neighbours. Wong said Singapore plans to do more on energy and food security with Indonesia. These areas of cooperation were discussed during his introductory visit to Jakarta in November 2024, when he met Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
With Malaysia, major projects such as the Rapid Transit System and the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (SEZ) are in the works. Wong noted that Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong had just attended an investment forum for the SEZ in Johor Bahru on April 21. Asean integration will also be strengthened, with the aim of making the regional bloc completely tariff-free and with lower non-tariff barriers.
"We will grow intra-Asean trade and investments and enhance cooperation in new areas like the digital economy," said the fourth prime minister of a prosperous island which is today ranked as a major Asian financial centre for global businesses and a growing shipping and trans-shipping centre with an international network. Through Asean, Singapore will engage other major players such as China, India, South Korea, Japan and Gulf countries in the Middle East, according to the Singapore daily broadsheet. PM Wong said he had a good discussion with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen a week earlier.
Asean and the EU have a strategic partnership, and the EU also has free trade agreements with Singapore and Vietnam. "Our two regions can do more together, and we can take concrete steps towards an Asean-EU FTA," he said. Another idea is to work through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, which was known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership before the US pulled out early in US President Donald Trump's first term in 2017.
The CPTPP has been growing – the United Kingdom has joined, and several economies like Indonesia have expressed interest to do so, noted Wong. If the CPTPP forms a partnership with the EU, they will together account for 30 per cent of the world's gross domestic product even without the US, he added. "We will stay nimble and look out for new opportunities," he said.
"In this changed world, our mission is clear: to steer Singapore through the storm, and secure a brighter future for you," the Singapore daily had quoted Wong as underlining. Wong's PAP has secured first five seats for the next parliament as one Group Representation Constituency was returned unopposed on April 23 nomination day. It is being challenged in the 92 seats, voting for which will be held on May 3.
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI).
