Gan Kim Yong, Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry and YB Dato’ Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, Malaysia’s Senior Minister and Minister of International Trade and Industry have agreed to start discussions on Frameworks of Cooperation in their digital and green economies.
The digital economy and green economy are key drivers of economic growth. Singapore and Malaysia share strong economic relations, and the discussions on Frameworks of Cooperation represent the commitment of our two countries to deepen existing bilateral economic collaboration and bring about tangible benefits to our economies.
– Gan Kim Yong, Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry
The COVID-19 pandemic has hastened the digital transformation of conventional business models and underlined the significance of global digital connectivity. Thus, Singapore and Malaysia need to promote more interoperability and collaboration to get ready for the next stage of growth in the digital economy. this initiative will benefit both nations’ businesses and communities; and will open a wider range of opportunities.
Economic growth and commerce are increasingly influenced by sustainability and climate change. For the world to meet its climate goals, like-minded nations like Singapore and Malaysia must cooperate to create a low-carbon future. This entails cooperating on initiatives to decarbonise their industries and make it possible for the local companies and employees to take advantage of opportunities in the green economy.
The Ministers agreed that both countries’ sustainable and inclusive growth depends on the digital and green economy. The Frameworks of Cooperation would improve communication and collaboration in these sectors and serve as the foundation for upcoming bilateral cooperation projects including the digital and green economies.
Moreover, Minister YB Dato’ stated that digital and environmentally friendly components are increasingly becoming the essential form of the economy. Malaysia and Singapore are embarking on a collaboration in these two sectors that will ultimately bring a broader variety of benefits to businesses in both nations, specifically in the areas of entrepreneurship, industrialisation, investment, and commerce.
The Frameworks of Cooperation are also intended to help Malaysia and Singapore develop specific, implementable programmes that will strengthen and preserve existing and future global economic ties, especially those promoted by ASEAN.
The conversation also included the recent participation of both Ministers in Paris at the Informal Ministerial Meeting on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). The IPEF is an important venue for the US to engage the region and for nations to collaborate to promote the open and rules-based trade ecosystem, as both Ministers reaffirmed. The Ministers emphasised the value of the IPEF remaining a transparent, flexible, and open effort to encourage greater participation and deeper collaboration.
Furthermore, OpenGov Asia earlier reported that a significant digital theme ran throughout the Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) between the governments of Singapore and Malaysia on information and communications cooperation. Both nations talked about their digital transformation initiatives and looked into ways that bilateral digital cooperation could help the post-pandemic recovery process.
Both parties talked about how to better integrate their respective innovation and technology ecosystems to promote enterprises and start-ups, as well as how to enable trusted data transfers between the two nations. Both nations are also committed to carrying out initiatives that will show the advantages of collaboration in this quickly evolving digital space to aid the recovery of their respective economies.
The JCM also talked about how technologies and online platforms are changing how media is made, distributed, and used, such as by making more information available and spreading false information quickly.
