Opening Remarks

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam,

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

1. Good evening to all of you. A very warm welcome to this inaugural Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Clean Economy Investor Forum. It is our honour and our pleasure to host all of you here this evening in Singapore.

 

Singapore is a strong supporter of the IPEF

 

2. Singapore is a strong supporter of the IPEF.

 

  a. It is strategically important to enhance closer economic partnerships between the USA and countries in the Indo-Pacific.

 

  b. We welcome the progress made in the IPEF negotiations.

 

  i. In May last year, partners substantially concluded negotiations on the Supply Chain Agreement. The Agreement was signed in November 2023 and entered into force in February this year.

 

ii. Negotiations on the Fair Economy Agreement and Clean Economy Agreement have also been substantially concluded, and partners are taking steps to have these agreements signed.

 

iii. We see the Trade Pillar as an integral part of the IPEF and we hope that we also can conclude negotiations when the time is right.

 

3. What we have done so far is just the beginning. We must translate these Agreements into tangible outcomes that benefit our businesses and our people.

 

The Clean Economy Investor Forum as a catalyst for climate action

 

4. The Clean Economy Investor Forum is an example of how we can advance our collective commitment in the Clean Economy Agreement to tackle climate change.

 

5. Climate change is an existential challenge, and the transition to net-zero will be very difficult and expensive. To effectively decarbonise, we will need all stakeholders to come together and partner with each other:

 

  a. Governments, to develop policy frameworks for the net-zero transition, and provide political leadership for difficult but necessary policies, such as right pricing of carbon emissions.

 

  b. Industry, to develop cleaner technologies and more energy-efficient work processes.

 

c. And banks and investors, to finance green and transition projects in a commercially viable way.

 

6. Representatives from all three stakeholder segments will be participating in this Forum.

 

  a. All 14 IPEF countries are present here, including many of my fellow IPEF Ministers.

 

  b. We have more than 60 proposals from project developers and entrepreneurs.

 

  i. They range from renewable energy infrastructure to battery recycling, sustainable agriculture, and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (or CCUS).

 

  ii. These projects were shortlisted from more than 300 applications we received!

 

  iii. I am encouraged by the strong industry interest and the quality and diversity of these proposals.

 

  c. We will also have more than 160 investors with us.

 

  i. I hope you will lend your support so that we can bring promising ideas for sustainable development closer to reality.

 

7. I hope that all of you will find this a useful platform to build connections, share expertise, exchange ideas, and grow the pipeline of clean technology and infrastructure investments in the region.

 

Conclusion

 

8. The success of this Forum is testament to what we can achieve if countries actively seek common ground and collaborate with one another.

 

9. A very big thank you to all our organising team and international partners, for your many months of hard work and strong partnership. I would like to also thank President Tharman for hosting the fireside chat later on, which all of us are looking forward to. I wish all of you a fruitful evening and a productive Forum tomorrow. Thank you.