Speech by Minister Gan Kim Yong at the FT Commodities Asia Summit

Distinguished guests, 
Ladies and gentlemen, 

1. Good afternoon.   
 
2. Thank you for inviting me to give an opening address at the Financial Times Commodities Asia Summit 2021. It is my pleasure to welcome participants from over 500 different companies and 70 countries attending virtually today. 
 
3. This is the second edition of the summit which Financial Times is organising in collaboration with Enterprise Singapore.  The inaugural event last year was very well-received, and I am confident that this year’s event will be just as successful.  
 
Introduction 
 
4. The global world order is changing, and so is the landscape for international trade. We need to grapple with trends such as evolving geopolitical tensions, climate change, and even anti-globalisation sentiments in many parts of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has also impacted the pattern of commodity trade flows and disrupted traditional business models. 
 
5. At the same time, new opportunities are emerging. Global trade rebounded very strongly in 2021, with the value of merchandise trade in the first half of this year increasing by about 30% compared to 2020 and 15% compared to 2019 . Singapore also managed to stand strong as a key commodities trading hub in the region despite global headwinds. In 2020, Singapore generated S$1.5 trillion in international trade flows and S$33.7 billion in local business spending. 
 
6. This has been made possible by the large and growing trading community in Singapore. We have many of the world’s most notable traders congregating here. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to two new members of the trading community who joined us recently:  
  
a. Axpo, the largest utilities company in Switzerland, and major energy trading player in Europe. The Axpo Group established its trading office here in 2020, with the ambition of growing its liquefied natural gas portfolio globally, and to build a multi-commodities platform out of Singapore; and 
 
b. Sumitomo Rubber, which specialises in processing and manufacturing rubber products. It has recently set up its natural rubber procurement hub in Singapore.   
 
7. The trading community has continued to come together to exchange ideas through global and regional events. Apart from today’s summit, we recently hosted the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference and the Singapore International Ferrous Week. Singapore will also be hosting the GasTech Exhibition & Conference in 2023.  
 
Strengthening our trading hub status through Trade 2030 
 
8. As a small and open economy, our status as a global trading hub is critical. We have developed a Trade 2030 strategy to ensure that we remain a competitive trading hub of choice for businesses. We aspire to grow our offshore trade to over S$2.5 trillion by 2030. To achieve this goal, we have adopted three key strategies.  
 
Innovation and Digitalisation  
 
9. First, we must prepare for the next wave of growth through innovation and digitalisation. We will continue to work closely with our global trading companies to build up their capabilities in these areas, and ensure that we have a vibrant ecosystem that supports companies in their innovation journey. This will require close partnerships with our Research Institutes and Institutes of Higher Learning, which have strong research capabilities and a network of thought leaders, to spur innovation and growth. Companies can also tap on the Open Innovation Platform, a crowdsourcing platform that matches real-world business challenges with innovative solutions. 
 
Public-Private Partnerships 
 
10. Second, we must continue to have strong public-private partnerships to co-create solutions. One example is the Alliance for Action on Supply Chain Digitalisation, which included participants from the public and private sectors. This led to the development of the SG Trade Data Exchange, or SGTraDex, a digital infrastructure that facilitates trusted and secure data sharing among supply chain ecosystem partners through a common data highway.   
 
Growing re-exports  
 
11. Third, we will seek to facilitate more re-exports through Singapore, by leveraging our logistics infrastructure, and air and sea connectivity. For example, the Port of Singapore was named the “Best Global Seaport” at the 2021 Asia Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards, and the “Best Seaport in Asia” for the 33rd time. This attests to our commitment to upholding high standards of service and reliability in supporting global supply chains amidst the pandemic. We also have a strong core of service providers in our logistics sector, and a comprehensive ecosystem of supporting services in brokering, insurance, financing, and law and arbitration. These are critical elements for a strong and resilient supply chain.  
 
Working towards a sustainable and resilient economy 
 
12. Besides the more conventional trading of commodities, I am happy to hear that the Singapore trading community has also been actively supporting our sustainability agenda. This is another priority for us as we emerge from the pandemic. Earlier this year, we announced the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a whole of nation movement to advance 
Singapore’s national agenda on sustainable development. A key pillar of this plan is the Green Economy, which will bring many new opportunities for Singapore, such as carbon services. Currently, we already have more than 70 companies involved in carbon services and trading in Singapore. This includes Mercuria, Trafigura, BHP and Chevron, which have started trading carbon credits.  
 
13. The commodity trading community has also taken the initiative to drive sustainability-related projects.  For example, ADM, an American multinational food processing and commodities trading corporation recently set up a new plant-based innovation lab in Singapore’s Biopolis research hub, in addition to the ADM Technical Innovation Center based here. Through this, ADM hopes to make plant protein more accessible to Southeast Asia, in response to growing consumer demand for healthy, nutritious, and sustainable food. 
 
14. These initiatives are a win not just for the climate, but also for our companies, because they are better positioned to capture emerging opportunities and thrive amidst the transition towards a more sustainable world.  
 
Conclusion 
 
15. I would like to thank Financial Times and Enterprise Singapore for organising this event. There will be many exciting growth opportunities ahead of us in the post-COVID world, and Singapore remains committed in supporting the sector as we emerge from the pandemic.  
 
16. I wish all participants a fruitful conference. Thank you.