SINGAPORE – Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong held the 2024 U.S.-Singapore Partnership for Growth and Innovation (PGI) Ministerial meeting and issued the following joint statement:

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The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) launched the PGI in October 2021 as a strategic pathfinder to strengthen trade and investment collaboration between the United States, Singapore, and Southeast Asia in new and forward-looking areas, and to build on the strong commercial ties between companies in both our countries.

We note that our efforts under the PGI complement other bilateral platforms such as the U.S.-Singapore Critical and Emerging Technology (CET) Dialogue. The PGI also complements our broader, regional engagement under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). Deepening long-term economic cooperation among the IPEF partners will contribute to greater economic growth and job creation in our markets. We remain committed to IPEF delivering concrete economic benefits and welcome the outcomes of the inaugural Clean Economy Investor Forum and the IPEF Ministerial meeting in Singapore from June 5-6.

There has been significant progress under the PGI’s four pillars of: the digital economy and smart cities; advanced manufacturing and supply chain resilience; clean energy and environmental technology; and healthcare. Across these pillars, we have launched thematic business missions to both of our countries to explore and seize opportunities for mutually-beneficial partnerships, convened roundtables and technology showcases involving our policy-makers and companies to share priorities and challenges, held capacity-building and standards workshops that raise our bilateral and regional capabilities, and engaged in joint programming at relevant events to leverage our respective strengths in the promotion of common objectives.

Significant and tangible outcomes, particularly on the digital economy and smart cities, have been accelerated by the CET Dialogue. Launched in October 2023, this new Dialogue has elevated the work that we are doing to harness technology for the public good and has brought high-level attention to key initiatives under the PGI. This work and their outcomes include the following:    

• To provide U.S. and Southeast Asian governments and cities with the strategies, technologies, and resources to become more resilient and secure, Commerce, joined by the Departments of State and Transportation is leading an expert delegation of subject matter experts, city leaders, and civil society groups to Singapore from June 2-6, 2024. The delegation attended the World Cities Summit and is holding additional consultations this week with industry and government officials. This visit is deepening engagement between U.S. and Singaporean experts, including planning for a future Smart City Project Pairing Initiative under the CET Dialogue.
• To foster greater connections and innovations that better serve the evolving needs of consumers, companies, investors, and governments, Commerce led U.S. Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) on a trade mission to Asia Tech x Enterprise, Asia’s largest Information and Communications Technology trade show, from May 29 – 31, 2024. This follows just months after Commerce led a separate delegation of MSMEs to the Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2023.
• To facilitate data protection and the trusted flow of data across borders, as part of the Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) Forum, Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) established the Global CBPR and Global Privacy Recognition for Processors (PRP) Systems on April 30, 2024. The Systems will enable organizations to demonstrate their compliance with internationally-recognised data protection and privacy standards, helping businesses reach foreign markets and enhancing digital trade by providing an interoperable mechanism for effective data protection globally.
• To allow regulators worldwide to facilitate cross-border cooperation in the enforcement of data protection and privacy laws, IMDA and ITA, alongside Members of the Global CBPR Forum, established the Global Cooperation Arrangement for Privacy Enforcement (CAPE) in October 2023. The Global CAPE is a multilateral arrangement for Privacy Enforcement Authorities to collaborate on a global scale to enforce data protection and privacy laws.
• To strengthen and enable the region to better leverage the digital economy to drive economic development, in November 2023, ITA and IMDA led a joint weeklong training on the digital economy under the U.S.-Singapore Third Country Training Program. The program included 26 government officials from Southeast Asian countries and the ASEAN Secretariat. The course covered digital governance, data protection and privacy, artificial intelligence (AI), combatting online scams, and the digitalization of MSMEs.
• To fully realize the benefits of AI and harness its potential for good, the United States and Singapore have prioritized development and adoption of interoperable governance frameworks for the trusted, safe, secure, and responsible development, deployment, and evaluation of AI technologies. At the inaugural CET Dialogue in October 2023, Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and IMDA announced the completion of a “crosswalk” between the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and IMDA AI Verify, the first such successful country-to-country mapping by both countries. U.S.-Singapore cooperation in AI builds on ongoing work at bilateral platforms such as our AI Governance Group, as well as at international platforms.

We resolve to take this collaboration even further. Following our PGI Ministerial meeting today, Commerce and Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) will convene an AI roundtable involving industry and government representatives to discuss U.S.-Singapore investments, governance approaches, and workforce development in AI. This roundtable underscores the depth of U.S.-Singapore collaborations in AI across our governments, industry, and research institutions, as well as the complementary capabilities and sophistication in AI between the United States and Singapore. Additionally, Commerce and MCI announced we would explore an AI Talent Bridge program. This expands on the U.S.-Singapore Women in Tech Partnership Program launched by Commerce and MCI in 2022. This initiative will deepen collaboration between the United States and Singapore on CET, including AI, with an emphasis on supporting youth, women, and future leaders in tech.

The two governments welcome the upcoming signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between IMDA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which seeks to better position our governments and businesses to capitalize on future opportunities and enhance digital business and trade processes via frameworks such as Singapore’s TradeTrust.

Complementing and augmenting the PGI’s pillar on advanced manufacturing and supply chain resilience, our two governments resolve to enhance bilateral cooperation on semiconductors. Led by Commerce’s CHIPS Program Office (CPO) and CHIPS Research and Development Office (CRDO) on the U.S. side, and the Economic Development Board (EDB); Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR); and Enterprise Singapore on the Singapore side, we welcome intensified discussions to identify areas of common interest for deepened collaboration on topics such as:

• Human capital development to meet the growing and evolving needs of the semiconductor industry;
• R&D and innovation for next-generation integrated circuits, including of an early-stage and pre-competitive nature; and
• Supply chain collaboration for semiconductor and semiconductor equipment manufacturing.

Clean energy and environmental technology are additional areas where Commerce and MTI continue to strengthen our collaboration. We look forward to deepening cooperation in civil nuclear energy capability building. Other joint initiatives to promote sustainability and adoption of high-quality climate standards in Southeast Asia include: 

• Continued progress by the United States, Singapore, and the 12 other IPEF partners to advance collaboration on Cooperative Work Programs such as hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel under IPEF’s proposed Agreement on the Clean Economy.
• Enhanced collaboration on environmental and climate protection under the MOU on Environmental and Climate Cooperation signed between Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment in April 2024.
• To leverage trade opportunities for water technologies and solutions, ITA will participate in Singapore International Water Week’s Water Expo later this month, where ITA will facilitate business matchmaking and partnerships between U.S. and Singaporean companies.
• ITA and Singapore’s Energy Market Authority will deepen collaboration at Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2024 on hydrogen technologies following the successful public-private sector roundtable on carbon management and renewable energy technologies at SIEW 2023.

The PGI has been a vital platform for the United States and Singapore to jointly explore and develop solutions and innovations to address today’s complex challenges. We will maintain our regular engagements under the PGI to chart new pathways and identify transformative initiatives, including in new areas of mutual interest, that deepen our partnership, ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth for our businesses and workers.

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