Senior American Business Leaders Engage with Singapore, Support Strong U.S.-Singapore Ties
From 23 May through 25 May 2022, the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC) was proud to host a series of in-person dialogues with senior officials in the Singaporean Government and American business leaders during its 2022 Singapore Business Mission. The 2022 mission marked the first Singapore mission to be conducted in person since 2019. This year’s delegation of 33 U.S. firms, the largest ever during a Singapore mission, was led by US-ABC Senior Vice President & Regional Managing Director Amb. Michael Michalak, and US-ABC’s Singapore Committee Chair Oracle, represented by Matis Pellerin, Vice President of Global Government Affairs and Horng Shya Chua, Country Managing Director Singapore.
“I am very excited about this year’s mission because it’s the first we have been able to host in-person since 2019. We have been extremely grateful that the Singaporeans have met with us virtually for the past two years, but there is truly no replacement for the quality of relationship building that takes place when everyone is in a room together. Our record setting delegation size this year is a testament to that. This mission comes at a crucial juncture following a successful ASEAN-US Special Summit, and also with upcoming changes to Singapore’s leadership. We look forward to working with our Singapore government colleagues in the months and years to come to strengthen the bilateral relationship between our two countries” Michalak stated.
The business delegation met first with Amb. Jonathan Eric Kaplan, U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, ahead of the launch of the Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). IPEF and the U.S.-Singapore Partnership for Growth and Innovation (PGI) were discussed in all meetings, demonstrating elevated bilateral ties and positive momentum for US-ASEAN relations after US-ASEAN Special Summit on May 12-13 in Washington DC.
The U.S. Embassy meeting was followed with meetings throughout the week with key members of the Singapore Cabinet including Education Minister Chan Chun Sing; Trade Minister Gan Kim Yong; Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan; Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information and Health, & Minister-in-charge of GovTech Dr. Janil Puthucheary; Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment and Transport, Dr. Amy Khor; and Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, Dr. Koh Poh Koon. The delegation also initiated dialogues with regulators and senior officials of several statutory boards and agencies, including Workforce Singapore (WSG), and Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG), Energy Market Authority (EMA), the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC), and the Economic Development Board (EDB).
U.S. companies discussed priorities in the immediate term such as Singapore’s resilient economic recovery in line with 2022 National Budget Priorities, amplifying American business’ role in supporting Singapore’s hub status; and supporting U.S.-Singapore bilateral programs and US-ASEAN regional priorities on free and open trade.
“Our dialogue with the Singapore government comes at an important juncture. Singapore's leadership, in promoting digital trade agreements across the region and in pioneering the use of cloud computing and digital applications, to address the region's challenges in healthcare, climate change, and supply chain security, is of critical importance. We look forward to leveraging the US-ASEAN Business Council's long-term partnership with the Singapore government to create together a resilient and secure future built on data.” said Horng Shya.
The delegation of 33 US-ABC member companies also met with Amb. Jonathan Kaplan, U.S. Ambassador to Singapore.
US-ABC Committee Chair Oracle and Vice-Chairs Visa and MSD, along with 3M, Adobe, AIG, Amazon, Amgen, Apple, Boeing, BowerGroupAsia, Citi, Dell, Expedia, General Electric, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., IBM, Marriott International, Mastercard, Meta, Micron Technologies, Qualcomm, S&P Global, Salesforce, SAP, Seagate, Stripe, UL, UPS, Scowcroft Group, and VMware joined the mission.