Mr S Iswaran at the “Singapore-Turkey Business Collaborations” Seminar, 12 Jun 09

SPEECH BY MR S ISWARAN, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY AND EDUCATION AT THE SINGAPORE-TURKEY BUSINESS COLLABORATIONS SEMINAR, 12 JUNE 2009

Mr Şevket Ilgaç, Deputy Undersecretary, Undersecretariat of Prime Ministry for Foreign Trade

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen.

Good morning to all of you. It is a real pleasure to be here in beautiful Istanbul and I would like to thank the government and people of Turkey for the warm hospitality extended. The Deputy Undersecretary has talked quite a bit about the global economy and challenges facing us ahead and I don’t wish to dwell on that except to make the point that there are two elements we are dealing with.

First is coming up with measures in the short term to cope with the downturn and to help businesses through this period so that when the upturn comes about, we are in a better position to capitalise on that. The second element, perhaps even more importantly, is the ability to think beyond the downturn and to look at where the opportunities are for future growth so that we can now start positioning ourselves and capitalise on that. And that is the context in which bilateral relationship between Turkey and Singapore is an important one.

The bilateral trade numbers last year were in excess of US$1 billion. This year we will undoubltedly be affected by the economic downturn but the real bilateral economic exchange will only come when our companies really engage one another, to partner each other, in order to explore and participate in opportunities that are available in each other country but also in third countries in the region in which we are located. What is the basis for this collaboration between Turkish and Singaporean businesses? I like to give you three considerations that I believe are quite compelling value propositions. Firstly, that of geography. Turkey has positioned itself as the gateway to quite a wide geographical region and the economic opportunities that exist in the region. First, Turkey is part of the customs union with the EU and Turkey also develop strong linkages with the emerging markets of Central Asia, Africa and Middle East. I think these are interesting markets and markets which are from the Singaporean perspective, which are new and exciting an can offer considerable prospects. Similarly, Singapore is located at the heart of the region of which is growing rapidly. One of the clear outcomes from the current global crisis changes is the shift in centre of gravity in global goal from the Western hemisphere, United States, to the eastern hemisphere particularly that of China, India. We have well developed expert groups in China, India and ASEAN. Collectively, we are looking at a market in excess of 3 billion people. So the geography value proposition where each is a gateway to the other is a clear opportunity.

The second is cultural. Both countires are at the nexus of interaction between Eastern and Western traditions. Turkish companies are very familiar with being,t on one hand, dealing with western corporations,whether European and American and at the same time deal with partners from emerging markets in Central Asia and so on. And that require a certain mindset and ability to navigate and merge two cultures.

In Singapore, we are very much in a similar position because Singapore is at the crossroads of trade and investment flows, at the points of intersection between flows from Europe and US and into Asia and flows out of Asia into China, India and our ASEAN cultivation region out to the world. Our companies are therefore very familiar with managing the challenges of cross culture, in particular eastern and western culture to bring them together in a productive manner.

The third which has potential for collaboration between Singapore and Turkish companies is one based on capabilities. Turkish companies have built up long and deep capabilities in a wide range of sectors. The larger companies like Koç are well known but the mid size companies which also clearly have strong capabilities are the ones that need to behiglihlight and likewise in Singapore we have capabilities in several sectors. Some of the larger companies are already present in Turkey such as PSA who together with Afken have opearing a port in Mersin. We have many other companies and several of them have developed capabilities in a wide range such as precision engineering, electronics, tourism, manufacturing and so on. So I believe the ability to bring these capabilities together and the people of Singapore would like to underscore the potential of R&D collaboration. We have a very well established network of research institutes which work very closely with the industries so for Tukrish companies particularly those which are technology based, there is opportunity to collaborate using R&D and working with our institutes. That is another way to bring our capabilities together. The scope is significant.

At the government to government level, we have signed an Investment Guarantee Agreement and that should give our companies confidence but the most important thing is the business to business level so efforts now to formalise cooperation between the two business communities is a very important one but I would like to add, even more importantly is to operationalise the intent of this collaboration by assuring an effective and productive partnership.

So on that note, I want to say once again it has been a pleasure to be here and wish all of you much success in your business matching.

Thank you.