REMARKS BY DR TAN SEE LENG, MINISTER FOR MANPOWER AND SECOND MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY AT THE CAMBODIA-SINGAPORE BUSINESS FORUM

Your Excellency Dr Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia,

Mr Lim Ming Yan, Chairman of the Singapore Business Federation,

Mr Kith Meng, President of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce and Chair of ASEAN Business Advisory Council – Cambodia

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning.

1.              Let me begin by extending a warm welcome to His Excellency Hun Manet and his distinguished guests to Singapore.

Your visit, Mr Prime Minister, affirms and gives fresh impetus to the growing bilateral relationship between Singapore and Cambodia.      

Longstanding Singapore-Cambodia Relations

2.             Singapore and Cambodia enjoy a longstanding friendship, both bilaterally and at ASEAN.

Next year, we will celebrate the 60^th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

3.             We also share warm and growing economic relations.

Last year, Singapore was Cambodia’s top investor from ASEAN, and second largest investor overall, up from the fourth place in 2022.

a.    Singapore’s investments in Cambodia span a wide range of sectors, including in trade and distribution, real estate, finance, education, and agribusiness.

b.    The strong turnout at today’s Forum demonstrates the continued interest by Singapore companies to explore business opportunities in Cambodia and find new partners.

Strengthening Collaboration in Traditional and Emerging Sectors

4.             ASEAN as a region is growing.

Inflows into the region rose to US$224 billion in 2022, with manufacturing, energy, digital economy, and finance leading FDI growth as supply chain shifts.

5.             Singapore and Cambodian businesses and their strong partnerships drove a key part of this growth.

Allow me to share three examples of successful collaboration:

a.    To support the increased demand in the aviation industry post COVID-19, SIA Engineering signed a joint venture agreement with Cambodia Airport Investment Co., Ltd to form a line maintenance joint venture in Cambodia last year.

The joint venture will help to provide line maintenance services at Phnom Penh’s new Techo Takhmao International Airport when it commences operations next year.

b.    In the logistics sector, YCH Group, with the support of Infrastructure Asia, is working with Cambodia’s Worldbridge Group to co-develop the Phnom Penh Logistics Complex.

When completed, the multi-modal logistics hub is expected to serve as a key connection node for intra-regional trade flow and attract more investors to set up businesses in Cambodia.

c.     In the solid-waste management sector, Singapore waste management company 800 Super, together with its Cambodian joint venture partner, GAEA Waste Management, has been awarded a 10-year contract since 2021 for the collection and transportation of solid waste for one of the three zones in Phnom Penh City.

800 Super has also introduced its GPS fleet management system deployed from Singapore to better track and manage assets and enhance workers’ safety in Phnom Penh.

6.             And as we look ahead, economic opportunities in the region will only continue to grow.

Notably, Southeast Asia poses great potential not just for the sectors I listed earlier, but also the green economy.

An estimated US$1 trillion of green economic opportunities is expected to be generated by 2030 within the region.

a.    Two weeks ago, Singapore hosted the IPEF Clean Economy Investor Forum, which saw close to 70 sustainable infrastructure projects being identified.

Collectively, these projects amount to over US$23 billion of investment opportunities.

7.             We would be happy to partner Cambodia on our region’s journey towards a clean and green economy.

As a start, we will be advancing collaboration in two key areas – first on energy, and second on sustainability.

8.             On the energy front, there is urgency to explore renewable energy options as our economies transit towards net-zero.  

a.    In March 2023, Keppel Energy Pte. Ltd, in partnership with Cambodia’s Royal Group Power, became the first company to be granted Conditional Approval by Singapore’s Energy Market Authority to import one gigawatt of renewable energy from Cambodia to Singapore.

b.    We will continue to facilitate the development of such projects, especially as we work towards realising our vision of the ASEAN Power Grid.

To this end, we have also set up the Lao PDR-Cambodia-Singapore Workgroup on Cross-Border Electricity Trade last month.

c.     This demonstrates our continued efforts to accelerate renewable energy development in the region and help investors identify viable cross-border energy trading projects or renewable energy projects in-market.

9.             On the sustainability front, Cambodia and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on carbon credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement in May 2023.

We are working towards signing a legally binding Implementation Agreement, which will set the framework for the generation and transfer of carbon credits between Singapore and Cambodia.

a.    This collaboration will advance both countries’ climate ambition and channel financing towards additional mitigation efforts. 

b.    Companies can look forward to utilising the Implementation Agreement to develop carbon credit projects that generate high-quality Article 6 compliant carbon credits that meet the environmental integrity criteria set out by Singapore and Cambodia.

Encouraging Companies to Pursue Business Opportunities

10.          I hope that what I have shared thus far have inspired you to consider how we could continue to explore collaboration on various fronts.

Today’s Forum serves as an excellent platform for everyone to network, cross-pollinate ideas and insights, and turn these ideas into collaborative projects.

11.          I am pleased to hear that the Singapore Business Federation and Cambodia Chamber of Commerce will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding to refresh their continued commitment to promote business opportunities in both countries.

Closing

12.          As we look to the future, Singapore and Cambodia should continue to leverage each other’s strengths to tap on the growing opportunities in ASEAN.

I would like to encourage businesses to pursue these opportunities in areas of mutual interests, particularly in the green economy which I spoke about earlier, and forge long-term partnerships.

13.          I wish everyone a fruitful session today and look forward to seeing our bilateral economic relations grow from strength to strength. 

14.          Thank you.