World has to be prepared for 'fairly prolonged' trade war: Heng Swee Keat
BEIJING: As the trade war between the United States and China shows no signs of easing, Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat warned that there is a risk of the conflict growing into “something more difficult”.
“We have to be prepared that this is going to be fairly prolonged, but at the same time, we need to do our best to de-escalate this,” said Mr Heng on Friday (Oct 19).
AdvertisementHe was speaking to Singapore media at the end of a three-day visit to Beijing, which included meetings with Chinese leaders such as Vice Premier and economic tsar Liu He, as well as central bank governor Yi Gang.
“I think the Chinese are showing great restraint and I hope that more constructive solutions can be found,” said Mr Heng.
On a global level, he noted that one way is to look at how the World Trade Organization’s rules can be upgraded to take into account the changing structure of the world economy.
Within the region, efforts to sustain momentum for free trade must also be stepped up, and Mr Heng voiced hope that an early conclusion can be reached for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe trade pact involves the 10 ASEAN states and its six free trade agreement partners, including China.
“I recognise that it is easier to do bilateral and regional deals, but these should be building blocks and not stumbling blocks towards a global agreement,” said Mr Heng.
“Our goal must be to have liberalisation at a global level, and to ensure that the support for open rule-based multilateral trade remains strong.”
At the same time, there should be efforts to help people keep up with the changes brought about by globalisation and in Singapore, this means continuing work on industry transformation, said Mr Heng.
Citing trade tensions, the International Monetary Fund recently lowered its 2019 growth forecast for the global economy – from 3.9 per cent to 3.7 per cent.
While noting that this is not a good development, Mr Heng stressed that this should not detract Singapore from the more critical task of restructuring for the long term.
During his visit, Mr Heng visited several Chinese companies and pointed out that there are many areas where new and existing technology can be used in new business models, which will have an impact on different sectors of the economy.
“We need to step up the pace of our work and we must continue to encourage our companies, to restructure, to innovate, to make better use of technology and at the same time to raise the skills level of our workers so that the restructuring efforts of our companies can go in tandem with the growth of the skills and productivity of our workers,” said Mr Heng.
He also noted that Singapore is happy to welcome innovative Chinese companies to use Singapore as a base for expansion into the region and the world.
This is also part of the broader strategy to build Singapore into a global Asia node of technology, innovation and enterprise.
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BEIJING: As the trade war between the United States and China shows no signs of easing, Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat warned that there is a risk of the conflict growing into “something more difficult”.
“We have to be prepared that this is going to be fairly prolonged, but at the same time, we need to do our best to de-escalate this,” said Mr Heng on Friday (Oct 19).
AdvertisementHe was speaking to Singapore media at the end of a three-day visit to Beijing, which included meetings with Chinese leaders such as Vice Premier and economic tsar Liu He, as well as central bank governor Yi Gang.
“I think the Chinese are showing great restraint and I hope that more constructive solutions can be found,” said Mr Heng.
On a global level, he noted that one way is to look at how the World Trade Organization’s rules can be upgraded to take into account the changing structure of the world economy.
Within the region, efforts to sustain momentum for free trade must also be stepped up, and Mr Heng voiced hope that an early conclusion can be reached for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe trade pact involves the 10 ASEAN states and its six free trade agreement partners, including China.
“I recognise that it is easier to do bilateral and regional deals, but these should be building blocks and not stumbling blocks towards a global agreement,” said Mr Heng.
“Our goal must be to have liberalisation at a global level, and to ensure that the support for open rule-based multilateral trade remains strong.”
At the same time, there should be efforts to help people keep up with the changes brought about by globalisation and in Singapore, this means continuing work on industry transformation, said Mr Heng.
Citing trade tensions, the International Monetary Fund recently lowered its 2019 growth forecast for the global economy – from 3.9 per cent to 3.7 per cent.
While noting that this is not a good development, Mr Heng stressed that this should not detract Singapore from the more critical task of restructuring for the long term.
During his visit, Mr Heng visited several Chinese companies and pointed out that there are many areas where new and existing technology can be used in new business models, which will have an impact on different sectors of the economy.
“We need to step up the pace of our work and we must continue to encourage our companies, to restructure, to innovate, to make better use of technology and at the same time to raise the skills level of our workers so that the restructuring efforts of our companies can go in tandem with the growth of the skills and productivity of our workers,” said Mr Heng.
He also noted that Singapore is happy to welcome innovative Chinese companies to use Singapore as a base for expansion into the region and the world.
This is also part of the broader strategy to build Singapore into a global Asia node of technology, innovation and enterprise.
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