“South Korea and Singapore respectively pulled off the miracle on the Han river and the miracle on the equator. As former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once said; our two countries created something from nothing. Therefore, we need to unite the hearts of our two countries for the next 50 years and move towards a greater future,” says South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol at the Singapore-Korea Business Forum on Oct 8.
Yoon is in the city-state as part of a three-day visit, his first to the nation since taking office in 2022.
He adds: “Today, the global economy is facing an unprecedented complex crisis due to the technological hegemony, climate assimilation crisis, and supply chain relapse. To overcome these complex crises, continuous technological innovation and high-tech industrial innovation are needed.”
The forum, jointly hosted by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), witnessed the signing of 10 memoranda of understanding (MOUs) across various industries, from automotive to renewable energy and food transport.
Notably, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR), the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore (HMGICS) and Nanyang Technological University will set up a corporate laboratory to conduct joint research on smart manufacturing technologies. The Energy Market Authority (EMA) will also work with the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning as well as the Korea Gas Corporation to explore new frontiers in the energy sector.
Also present at the forum were the Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng, and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Maliki Osman.
“I encourage Singaporean companies to leverage the expertise of your Korean counterparts and forge new networks, new markets and new connections. Similarly, for all of our Korean friends, Asean offers a dynamic and a rapidly growing market, which is projected to become the world's fourth-largest economy by 2030,” says Tan.
Tan continues: "This presents many opportunities for Korean companies to grow their footprint in the region. I urge more Korean companies, including small and medium-sized enterprisers (SMEs) and start-ups, to use Singapore as a springboard to access the Asean market."
South Korea is a key trade and investment partner for Singapore, as the city-state’s eighth largest trading partner in 2023 with total trade amounting to more than $62 billion. In the first eight months of 2024, bilateral merchandise trade increased by 9.2% to $44.5 billion y-o-y. Foreign direct investment (FDI) from South Korea to Singapore has also grown exponentially in the past decade, from $3 billion in 2012 to $46 billion in 2022.
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Come 2025, both countries will have achieved 50 years of diplomatic relations, while the Korea–Singapore Free Trade Agreement (KSFTA) has been in place since 2006 and the Korea-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement (KSDPA) was inked on November 2022. An MOU was also signed in November 2023 to pursue collaborations in energy and climate change.
SBF vice-chairman Andrew Kwan says: “Singapore and South Korea are also parties to the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKFTA) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which further integrated the manufacturing and supply chains of our companies with the larger Asean ecosystem.”
Yoon concludes: “The government of Korea, together with the authorities of Singapore, will fully support you (Singaporean and Korean businesses) so that companies from both countries can cooperate more efficiently with each other and apply the combined capabilities to achieve economic and energy security.”
