Minister Vivian Balakrishnan: I am here for the 14th Singapore-Thailand Civil Service Exchange Programme (CSEP). This programme began way back in 1998 and is an opportunity for senior leaders in the civil services from both Thailand and Singapore to get together, review progress, brainstorm ideas for new projects, and basically build up a reservoir of trust, goodwill and familiarity on both sides. I am happy to be here and happy to be back.
Thailand is a very important country for Singapore and for Singaporeans.
First, Thailand is about 700 times larger than Singapore; Bangkok alone is twice the size of Singapore. The population of Thailand is about 71 million, so it is much bigger. Economically, on a daily basis, most of us eat Thai rice, and Thai restaurants are a familiar favourite for many Singaporeans. Thailand is a vital source of food and agriculture for us. In fact, our trade figures have been growing consistently. Even during COVID, bilateral trade between Thailand and Singapore continued to grow. It is now in excess of S$41 billion every year, and I expect that number to grow further. In terms of investments, Singapore was the second largest foreign investor in Thailand in 2023. We have real stakes in the Thai economy, and we believe in its potential. We want Thailand to succeed.
Beyond the economy, we are also looking forward to the future. There are opportunities in both the green economy as well as digital economy. On the green and sustainable economy, we are discussing and negotiating a potential implementation agreement for carbon credits. I think as we all aim towards a net-zero future, Singapore will have to look for avenues in which we can lower our net carbon footprint by developing and supporting green projects elsewhere in the world, and Thailand is one such potential destination for carbon credits, which would be consistent with Article Six of the Paris Agreement.
On the digital space, the linkage between Singapore's PayNow and Thailand's PromptPay is a very good example. In fact, it is one of the world's first cross-border digital payment systems.
Beyond the technical aspect of linking digital payments is the larger economic message that we are lowering barriers, we are encouraging businesses on both sides to be able to trade and invest with as little friction as possible, and to expand opportunities for manufacturers, artists, artisans, merchandise producers, service providers on both sides to be able to access each other's markets.
All in all, Thailand is a very important partner. We should also recall that Thailand and Singapore were two of the founding members of ASEAN.
Fast forward to the world of today – war in Ukraine, war in Gaza, push back against globalisation, against free trade, and even the fracturing of global supply chains. It is important for countries like Thailand and Singapore to double down on our engagement, on our economic integration, and to continue to search for new opportunities in the emerging economy.
All in all, I was very pleased with this visit. I managed to catch up both with old friends and make new friends, and more importantly, sketch out the opportunities for the future, both for the public and the private sector.
Saksith Saiyasombut (CNA): My name is, Saksith Saiyasombut, I am the Thailand correspondent for CNA. Minister, this Thai Government has been now in office for almost a year. We have already seen a change of Foreign Minister once. Now that we have a government that is going to present itself to the world that it is open for business, that it is a destination for foreign investment for everybody from everywhere. Given your interactions in the past two days with people from government and political parties, how do you see bilateral ties between Thailand and Singapore changing or evolving?
Minister: The first point I would make is that we continue to believe in Thailand's economic potential. If you look at the size of Thailand’s economy, the natural resources, the agricultural endowments, its attitude to trade. Just to give you another historical example, Thailand has even been accessing Temasek (early recorded name of Singapore) centuries ago as a means to import and export between Thailand, or Siam in the past, and the rest of Southeast Asia and the world. So, my first point is, there are economic opportunities.
Second point is, I believe the growth rate in Thailand both has the potential to as well as the necessity to increase significantly, and we believe that by working closely together with our Thai partners, friends and business contacts, we can also play a role in helping to accelerate the growth prospects in Thailand.
My sense from my discussions across the political spectrum is that everyone agrees that there is a need to emphasise economic growth, a need to look for job opportunities, especially for young people, and that you also have to look in the emerging areas, and that is why I outlined opportunities both in terms of the digital and the green space. From my assessment and interactions over the last two days, I think across the political spectrum, everyone agrees on that.
Wong Siew Fong (ZB): Next year will be the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Thailand and Singapore. What further collaborations are we expecting in the year ahead? And can you share more about the outcomes of this trip?
Minister: I have already outlined some of it in my introduction earlier. Yes, next year is the 60th anniversary. Well, it is also the 60th year of Singapore's independence, which illustrates that Thailand is one of the first countries to recognise Singapore's independence. But actually, our historical linkage and relations with Thailand go much further back. Some of us might recall that King Chulalongkorn came to Singapore in 1871 and till this day, if you go to the Old Parliament House, you can see the elephant bronze statue that he gifted to Singapore. So, my point is, there has always been a long-term economic and people-to-people relationship between our two countries.
As to what we are going to look forward to in the next one year, as I already described, we are looking at a potential implementation agreement on carbon credits. We are trying to increase the two-way flow of tourists between Thailand and Singapore. We are looking at the potential of cruise tourism. We are also looking at Singapore hosting a youth camp, perhaps next year. I think it is another reminder that the stores of goodwill and familiarity, which already exist in the older generations, also need to be recreated for younger generations in Thailand and in Singapore.
On the digital space, apart from digital finance and digital payment connections, we also have a linkage between the stock exchanges in Thailand and Singapore – we call it the Depository Receipts Linkage. The whole concept of the DR Linkage is that by bringing things together and providing a more sophisticated and wider set of offerings to investors, we can expand the pie.
The other thing which we are also looking at, although it is still early days, is what we can do in the renewable energy space. Today we already have a small pipeline through the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-
We are looking at the future, how we can ultimately build this into the ASEAN Power Grid, which I think will be essential and will enhance the competitiveness of Southeast Asia in the decades to come.
There is quite a full list of projects to pursue, and we will work hard at it.
We are also very grateful to Thailand. You may recall when the incident of turbulence occurred on SQ 321, we were very grateful to the Thais for the way they looked after the flight’s passengers and crew that had to make an emergency landing, and the quality of care that Thailand provided.
It is just another reflection of the depth of the relationship and the ability for us to mutually rely on one another.
Michelle Ng (ST):What are some areas of cooperation for Singapore and Thailand that can help boost ASEAN centrality?
Minister: We go back to the first point that we were founding members of ASEAN back in 1967 – we have continued to work closely together in ASEAN to maintain ASEAN unity, ASEAN centrality. For instance, both Thailand and Singapore are working on third country technical assistance, where we provide additional training and support to civil servants and bureaucrats from other ASEAN members, as well as Timor Leste. So far, Thailand and Singapore have trained about 1,000 people under this project, and we will look at other possibilities.
I already mentioned the ASEAN Power Grid. We will look at other opportunities in terms of both energy and digital connections. For instance, the digital payment system that already exists between Thailand and Singapore – the interoperability of that also serves as an interesting, worked example of how we can further extend that, hopefully, to an ASEAN-wide digital payment system.
We have always treated Thailand as a serious-minded large neighbour in ASEAN whom we can try things out with, work out new ideas, run prototypes, and then see whether we can expand that across ASEAN as a whole.
Tan Min-Wei (Mothership): You spoke of the geopolitical shift in the region and around the world. How have these shifted the discussion of the focus of the CSEP?
Minister: Take a 70-year perspective to this. After the Second World War, Thailand and Singapore made enormous economic strides. To a significant extent, this was also because of the multilateral rules-based liberal economic order which encouraged free flow of capital, investments, global supply chains, growth of multinational corporations.
Both Thailand and Singapore in fact benefited from Pax Americana, which prevailed after the Second World War. Both Thailand and Singapore also benefited from the reform and opening of China since 1978, and then of course, as India came online in the 1990s, and also when ASEAN expanded after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. Again, ASEAN, and in particular Thailand and Singapore as relatively advanced economies within ASEAN, were able to take full advantage of such a world.
The point to understand now is that many pillars of that world that prevailed for the last five decades – parts of those are now under pressure. The attitude to free trade, the attitude to economic integration, liberal economics, free flow of capital, free flow of materials, global supply chains – all these are under political pressure, both domestically as well as globally.
What this means for Thailand and Singapore is that we cannot just keep doing more of the same. We need to find new and innovative ways to do business. I believe it also means within ASEAN we need to double down on our integration, on our connectivity. We need to increase investments in infrastructure which will connect and optimise all ASEAN countries and enhance our competitiveness. We need to enhance intra-ASEAN trade. We need to enhance ASEAN’s ability to produce more food, produce more renewable energy, and to make these offerings competitive on a global stage. What it means is we are facing a more unsettled world. The old formulas for peace and prosperity are under pressure. We need to double down within ASEAN. We need to double down bilaterally. We need to look for innovative, win-win solutions, and to take a long-term, constructive, mutually beneficial approach for this. I am confident we can find it.
Wong Siew Fong (LHZB): I have a question on BRICS. Thailand has officially requested to join BRICS and Malaysia is also planning to do so. This is often seen as a challenge to Western powers. So how will this move from Thailand and Malaysia affect our region?
Minister: The fundamental organising unit for Southeast Asia remains ASEAN. There is no substitute for ASEAN as an organising unit, a single production zone, a single investment zone, a competitive zone, with 680 million people, a combined GDP of US$3.5 trillion and with the potential to double and quadruple in the next 20 to 30 years. I think there is no question, the key game in town in our part of the world is ASEAN. We have done good work, and there is great potential.
Now, if you look beyond ASEAN. ASEAN itself has done trade agreements. For instance, the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), which in effect creates one of the world's largest free trade zones, including all 10 countries of ASEAN, plus China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand. Some of us in ASEAN, for instance, Singapore and Vietnam, are members of the CPTPP, which stands for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Within ASEAN, for instance, Singapore, Chile and New Zealand started the Digital Economic Partnership Agreement. This is something which the ROK (Republic of Korea) has joined. Thailand has expressed interest, and we support Thailand's interest in becoming part of the digital economy partnership agreement.
Thailand, and even Indonesia, has now also expressed interest in joining OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Thailand is also exploring interest to see what opportunities there may be from a deeper, or perhaps new relationship with BRICS. I think all these exploratory mechanisms are useful in their own right. It is not either or. It is additive.
I do not view these attempts to broaden markets and to reach a wider architecture as inimical to the overall growth of ASEAN, and certainly it is not inimical to our bilateral relations, and in particular, our bilateral economic relations. We need to take a longer and more expansive perspective on these issues. The world economic paradigm is under pressure, and sometimes people will make bilateral arrangements. Otherwise, they may make a variety of multilateral arrangements. So long as all these measures lead to greater openness, inclusiveness, a level playing field, make ASEAN member states more attractive for investments and promote trade, we are in support of all these exploratory moves.
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