Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

S’pore exports ‘to accelerate due to Asian rebound, trade deals’

SINGAPORE — The Republic’s exports are forecast to pick up steam in the next five years, boosted by the Asian economic recovery and the expected completion of several trade agreements, a report by Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) showed yesterday.

SINGAPORE — The Republic’s exports are forecast to pick up steam in the next five years, boosted by the Asian economic recovery and the expected completion of several trade agreements, a report by Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) showed yesterday.

The biannual HSBC Trade Forecast predicted that from this year to 2020, Singapore’s exports will grow by 3.9 per cent a year globally and 5 per cent a year within Asia excluding Japan. This is higher than the country’s recent export growth of 1.1 per cent over 2013 and 2014.

Mr Joe Arena, HSBC Singapore’s head of global trade and receivables finance, said: “While a short-term trade boost is expected from the increasingly robust United States economy, and cyclical upturns in Europe and Japan, the demographic trends in Asian emerging markets are likely to be the trade kicker from 2017 onwards — and Singapore is set to benefit.”

The report singled out Vietnam to be one of Singapore’s fastest-growing export destinations, saying it could replace the US as the fifth-largest export destination by 2030. Vietnam would rank behind China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

Singapore is also set to benefit from an increase in global trade activity following the imminent completion of the World Trade Organization’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has estimated that the TFA will reduce trade costs through reduction in customs and trade red tape by 12 per cent, while the Peterson Institute said that the TPP could boost world income by US$295 billion (S$397.7 billion) a year over the next decade.

Singapore recorded its best quarterly exports performance in three years, rising 4.8 per cent year-on-year in the January-to-March period this year. Exports of electronic products reversed a decline of 4.5 per cent in the last three months of 2014 to post 1.2 per cent growth in the first quarter.

The HSBC report said Singapore’s information and communications technology (ICT) exports are forecast to grow by 6 per cent per year over 2015 to 2030 despite structural shifts within the industry, such as production plants being moved out of the Republic to other countries.

Mr Arena said Singapore remains well-positioned to be a global player in ICT trade.

“Singapore is seeking to position itself as a ‘smart country’, by encouraging companies to invest and set up their head offices here. Practically speaking, we are seeing ICT businesses in Singapore move up the value chain by shifting production to lower-cost manufacturing economies in the region but centrally retaining their intellectual property, sales, distribution and decision-making in Singapore,” he said.

“Embracing the trade and economic realities of the region further demonstrates Singapore playing to its strengths as a financial trade hub and remaining strategically significant in the ICT sector,” he added.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.