Speech by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and National Development Alvin Tan at TikTok Shop Singapore Summit 2026

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. It's really good to be here with every one of you. It’s a big day for TikTok Shop Singapore. Thank you for bringing this together, this vibrant community of businesses, creators, and partners.

2. If you look around the room and those online, it is clear that Singapore's social e-commerce system has reached a pivotal moment. And today's summit reflects the fundamental truth about modern commerce.

3. The future of retail is driven by collaboration, and the retail landscape has transformed. Talking about collaboration, e-commerce has brought convenience.

4. Today, discovery commerce brings connection, and we have moved beyond passive transactions into an era powered by collaborative discovery. In fact, I worked in this space before, and it is great to see how TikTok is really advancing and transforming this whole area.

5. And even as we move into collaborative discovery, where trusted creators, interactive content, and real-time live streams bring product to life, collaboration also creates a lot of value. And that's why many of you are here.

6. For small and medium enterprises (SMEs), collaborating with creators lowers the barrier to reaching new audiences.

7. For creators, many amongst you today, collaborating with brands turn creativity into sustainable enterprise, and creates jobs. It also creates interactions and transactions.

8. And then, for consumers like myself and many of you here, this dynamic provides an authentic interactive shopping experience.

9. Well, Singapore is a small and open economy, as many of you know, and many wonderful companies like TikTok and TikTok Shop are here. Being an open and exciting economy means we must be on the move all the time.

10. We must be able to recognise the trends. We must be able to seize the trends, and we must move ahead where these shifts are happening.

11. Singapore's competitiveness relies on how quickly we adapt to changing consumer behaviour and how many of the small and medium enterprises, and in fact also big enterprises, evolve their business models.

12. But technology alone doesn't drive transformation. It's people and partnerships.

13. And that's why, if you take away one thing from this today, it's about collaboration. It's collaboration between people, consumers, creators, shops. It's also collaboration between industry and government.

14. That same spirit of collaboration must extend from the digital marketplace to our national ecosystem, and that's exactly why TikTok Shop is here, and why you are all here today.

15. At the heart of it is people - to build an agile and competitive workforce, government and industry must collab, must work hand in hand, and to invest in local talent.

16. So, I thank you, and I welcome TikTok Shop's commitment to train and upskill over 1,000 local businesses and SMEs through your Growth Accelerator Programme and your GO LIVE Academy, alongside supporting more than 3,000 creators by the end of this year in affiliate commerce, live stream selling, and content creation.

17. Then there's institutional partnerships as well. Strong collabs such as the partnership between the Singapore Retailers Association, SkillsFuture Singapore and TikTok Shop, are delivering practical social commerce solutions, tailored training, and robust infrastructure for our growing, as well as our evolving, retail sector.

18. And at the heart of it, it's also creating very exciting jobs for all of us here. This collab push is generating very fresh and new dynamic pathways.

19. I see many content creators here. You are already forging your own space in this region. You are social commerce hosts. You are campaign leads. You are social commerce engineers.

20. On the government side, what are we doing to enable you to flourish? Well, government will continue to invest in skills, digital infrastructure to make sure that you know your streams don't lag, and enterprise transformation.

21. But to translate innovation into strong business and quality jobs requires industry expertise and entrepreneurial drive. That's reflected in every single one of you here.

22. By deepening collaboration, again, this theme of collaboration between creators and brands, between government and industry, we are doing more than expanding this digital market.

23. We are building more innovative, resilient, and competitive businesses for a competitive economy.

24. So, congratulations to TikTok Shop Singapore on your inaugural summit.