Bilateral economic cooperation with Germany in the works

An inter-ministerial agreement on closer economic policy cooperation is now in the works.

Singapore announced that it is working on a bilateral economic framework agreement with Germany.

The Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations of the Republic of Singapore, S Iswaran, and the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck, recently met in Berlin for a fruitful dialogue on the current state and future of the economic policy cooperation between the Republic of Singapore and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Both ministers announced that they will be working together to develop a so-called bilateral ‘Economic Cooperation Framework’, which is an interministerial agreement with Singapore on closer economic policy cooperation. 

According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, this will further structure and deepen the economic policy collaboration on the government-to-government, government-to-business and business-to-business levels. 

The Framework will, for example, promote private sector-led collaborations across sectors such as advanced manufacturing, mobility, and green technologies. It will also lay the foundations for exploring further cooperation on workplace training, business matching, and networking. 

Both countries plan to conclude and sign the framework by the end of 2022. 

Singapore recently signed a similar agreement with Malaysia and China.