Her Excellency Ingrida Šimonytė, Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania,
Her Excellency Erika Kurockina, Lithuanian Vice Minister of the Economy and Innovation,
His Excellency Darius Gaidys, Lithuanian Ambassador to Singapore,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Introduction
1. Labas rytas (good morning), everyone!
a. Thank you for inviting me to speak at the inaugural Lithuania-Singapore Business Forum 2024.
2. I would first like to warmly welcome Prime Minister Šimonytė, Vice Minister Kurockina, and our esteemed guests from Lithuania.
a. I hope you have enjoyed your stay so far, and are enjoying a productive week at the Asia Tech x Singapore Summit.
b. I would also like to commend the Lithuanian Ministry of the Economy and Innovation, the Central and Eastern European Chamber of Commerce, and the Singapore Business Federation, for organising this forum.
3. With a population of only around 2.8 million, Lithuania’s economy stands strong at over US$80 billion in size.
a. In spite of numerous global challenges, Lithuania boasts robust information technology and biotechnology sectors, with its capital Vilnius emerging as a vibrant hub for tech startups and entrepreneurship.
b. Lithuania's commitment to education and research has also developed a highly skilled workforce, attracting investments from global MNCs such as Thermo Fisher, Continental and Western Union.
Singapore-Lithuania bilateral economic relations
4. Singapore and Lithuania share a warm and growing economic relationship, underpinned by the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
a. Since the agreement’s entry into force in 2019, our bilateral services trade has increased by nearly two-thirds to almost US$150 million in 2022.
5. The strong growth in our trade and investment linkages underscore the significant commercial opportunities within our markets and regions.
a. Singapore and Lithuania can serve as gateways into our respective regions, and facilitate greater economic linkages between Southeast Asia and the Baltics.
b. I am heartened to hear from Prime Minister the 500 million population within the EU. You can, likewise, use Singapore as a base to go into Southeast Asia and ASEAN, with a hinterland of six to 700 million; so when you combine both of them together, you are looking at populations in excess of 1 billion.
c. Given our strong trade and transport connectivity, I encourage Lithuanian businesses to continue using your operations in Singapore as a base to tap on the economic opportunities within Southeast Asia and the larger Asia Pacific region.
6. One new area of opportunities is the digital economy.
a. Given the importance of digitalisation in today’s interconnected world, Singapore and the EU are in advanced negotiations to sign a legally binding EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement.
b. This Agreement will establish rules governing core aspects of the digital economy, such as cross-border data flows, electronic invoicing, and e-authentication.
c. Companies can benefit from having a common set of rules and operating principles.
d. This will facilitate innovation, increase efficiency, boost our digital economies’ competitiveness, and create more opportunities for all stakeholders.
7. Singapore looks forward to the Lithuanian business community’s support for this agreement, which will help enhance connectivity between our digital markets and send a strong signal on global rules that enable and support digital trade.
Advanced Manufacturing
8. A second area of mutual interest is advanced manufacturing.
a. Manufacturing is a cornerstone of Singapore’s economy, constituting approximately a fifth of our GDP, and employing approximately one eighth of our workforce.
b. We have been tapping on our strengths in robotics and automation to target higher-value opportunities in advanced manufacturing, and secure newer growth pathways.
c. This is in line with our Manufacturing 2030 vision to become a global business, innovation, and talent hub for advanced manufacturing.
d. I am glad to learn that our life science tools manufacturer, ESCO Lifesciences, is here today and I look forward to their presentation about venturing into Lithuania later.
e. I encourage more Singapore companies to follow in ESCO’s footsteps to invest and expand in Lithuania and the broader Baltic region.
Innovation
9. A third area that we can collaborate on together is technology and R&D.
a. Technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping the manufacturing landscape, empowering companies with solutions that can deliver higher productivity, efficiency, and reliability.
b. To capture the growth opportunities amidst the rapid evolution of technology, we must continue to prioritise investments in research and development.
10. This is why Singapore recently announced in this year’s Budget that we will inject an additional S$3 billion to our Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 plan, up from our initial commitment of S$25 billion.
a. With this boost, we will provide stronger support towards R&D in priority areas such as advanced manufacturing, sustainability, and digital economy.
11. We also announced plans to allocate over S$1 billion over the next five years towards bolstering AI computing capability, alongside investments in talent and industry development.
12. I understand that Lithuania has also enacted policies to develop your research and innovation capabilities and capacity.
a. This includes providing support to AI start-ups pioneering practical AI applications across diverse sectors like healthcare and manufacturing, as well as crafting ethical AI regulatory frameworks for responsible AI development.
13. Lithuania and Singapore companies that are interested to explore further collaborations in innovation and R&D, are welcomed to utilise platforms such as the Eureka Eurostars programme, that both Singapore and Lithuania are part of.
a. This programme is designed to facilitate international co-innovation efforts to create innovative products, processes, and services for commercialisation.
Closing
14. In conclusion, while we come from different corners of the world, our shared values of resilience, creativity and the pursuit for open and rules-based trade unite us.
a. Today’s forum serves as an excellent platform to cross-pollinate ideas and insights, while elevating our partnerships.
b. I wish all participants a fruitful discussion today, and look forward to the continued strengthening of our countries’ economic ties in the years ahead.
15. Thank you.