Increasing Trade and Economic Cooperation between Africa and ASEAN

Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether he can provide an assessment of the impact that the various Asia-Africa meetings, held in Jakarta in April 2015, will have on increasing trade and economic cooperation between Africa and ASEAN.

The Second Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien) (for the Minister for Foreign Affairs): Mdm Speaker, the Asian-African Conference hosted by Indonesia is an important platform for political dialogue and economic cooperation between our two regions. I represented Singapore at the Ministerial Meeting and Prime Minister attended the Summit. The Conference was well attended by leaders from both regions.

The strong turnout of Asian leaders at the Conference was a positive signal and demonstrated the region's interests in engaging Africa. We hope the momentum generated can lead to closer economic cooperation and better trade and investment relations between Asia and Africa.

The Conference brought together two growing regions – Asia and Africa. Individually, both regions are doing well, growing at more than 5% last year. There is much potential for increased inter-regional economic cooperation.

Earlier this year, the African Union adopted a new "Agenda 2063" encompassing a vision for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development. Indeed, we are seeing political and economic transformation in Africa which has created new opportunities for cooperation.

In East Asia and in ASEAN, we need to improve our understanding of Africa's diversity and potential. In Singapore, we are beginning to step up our engagement with more African countries through bilateral forums and trade missions. The Singapore Business Federation has organised 13 trade missions to Africa in the past four years. To support our businesses' increased engagement with Africa, International Enterprise Singapore opened two commercial centres in Accra (Ghana) and Johannesburg (South Africa). We have also been working to conclude Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) with more African countries to boost investors' confidence in Africa. These steps will position us better to seize new business opportunities in Africa as the inter-regional trade and economic ties deepen.

We are also doing more to support human resource development and capacity building in governance for African countries. Since the inception of the Singapore Cooperation Programme in 1992, almost 8,000 African officials have attended our SCP programmes in areas such as civil aviation, economic development, and public administration and governance.

In August last year, we welcomed Foreign Ministers from seven Sub-Saharan African countries to Singapore for a Ministerial Exchange visit themed "Singapore-Africa: Partnering for Growth", followed by the Africa-Singapore Business Forum. These platforms allow us to engage African officials at different levels to strengthen our mutual understanding.