MFA Press Statement: President Tony Tan Keng Yam's Official Visit to the Swiss Confederation, 6 to 10 May 2014

            President Tony Tan Keng Yam met Swiss President and Federal Councillor for Foreign Affairs Didier Burkhalter on 8 May 2014.  The two Presidents witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Enhanced Partnership between the Republic of Singapore and the Swiss Confederation.  The Declaration acknowledges both sides’ desire to strengthen bilateral relations in areas of mutual interest. (Annex)

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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SINGAPORE

8 MAY 2014

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Annex

Declaration of ENHANCED PARTNERSHIP

Between

the Republic of Singapore

And

The Swiss Confederation

The Republic of Singapore and the Swiss Confederation, hereinafter referred to as “the Participants”;

Acknowledging the strong ties of friendship and trust between the two countries;

Valuing their constructive collaboration in international and regional fora, including the United Nations (UN), the Global Governance Group (3G) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM);

Believing that their common interests lie in promoting peaceful cooperation among nations, sustainable economic growth and development;

Hereby declare as follows:

1.     The Participants desire to enhance their relationship in all areas, including the following: 

a.     Bilateral trade and investment.  The Participants have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) through the European Free Trade Association-Singapore FTA (ESFTA), which entered into force in 2003.  Bilateral economic relations have benefited from the ESFTA.  This will be reviewed regularly to keep the agreement updated and relevant to business needs.

b.     International financial developments.  Both Singapore and Switzerland have a strong financial sector with close ties and similar interests in international financial developments. They will further work together to exchange views and enhance cooperation through a financial dialogue.

c.      Cultural and people-to-people links.  There is a close relationship between the Swiss and Singapore communities in both countries.  These links are further heightened by various student exchange programmes between Swiss and Singapore universities.  They will work to further enhance these linkages.

d.     Innovation, scientific research and higher education. Bilateral cooperation in these fields is active, with ongoing research and industry collaborations between A*STAR and a number of Swiss institutes and companies. There are numerous opportunities for Swiss students to participate in A*STAR programmes spanning short-term research to fully sponsored PhD training in Singapore. Young scientists from Switzerland are also conducting independent research in Singapore universities and under the National Research Foundation (NRF) Fellowship Scheme.  ETH Zurich’s Future Cities Lab is an important part of the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) in Singapore. The St. Gallen Institute of Management in Asia is another Swiss academic key player in Singapore. The education linkages between Switzerland and Singapore are extensive with many partnerships made between the Swiss and Singaporean Institutions of Higher Learning including collaborations such as joint academic programmes and student exchanges.

e.      Cooperation in regional and international fora.  The Participants have worked together on many issues of mutual interest. They seek to promote a more effective, accountable and inclusive global governance framework, e.g. through collaboration in the 3G. They are willing to build strong links between Asia and Europe at trans-regional fora such as ASEM, and to strengthen Asia-Europe cooperation in the ASEM process.

2.     The Participants will further work to go beyond existing areas of partnership to collaborate in new areas of mutual interest.  They will endeavour to enhance their partnership and task their officials to jointly study and identify areas of cooperation for mutual partnership, such as:

a.     promoting Switzerland and Singapore as complementary gateways into Europe and Asia to increase trade and investment flows between the two regions; 

b.     enhancing relations between Europe and Asia;

c.      strengthening the open and inclusive multilateral trading system as enshrined in the principles and values of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and furthering its global trade liberalisation trade agenda;

d.     enabling internships for young academic professionals to increase their understanding of the global economy and international companies and to facilitate the provision of training to young professionals;

e.      cooperating to deepen the mutual understanding of the culture, politics and history of the Participants by encouraging bottom-up driven collaboration between Swiss and Singapore research institutions and universities, taking due consideration of the autonomy of the respective institutions;  and

f.       continuing to deepen bilateral cooperation on environmental issues, particularly in the area of climate change and on sustainable development.

3.     In the spirit of strengthening bilateral relations, mutual understanding and economic cooperation, the Participants will endeavour to strengthen their dialogue on policy issues.

4.     To this end, the Participants desire to seek opportunities for suitably high-level representatives of their governments to have regular meetings where occasion and need arise. Such meetings will be supported by regular contact at the officials’ level either bilaterally or at international fora as appropriate.

5.     This Declaration is not intended to create any legally binding obligations between the Signatories.

Signed in Berne on 8 May 2014.