Singapore's Strategic Partnerships with Taiwan

TaiwanPlus News

Singapore will soon mark 60 years of independence, a major milestone for the city-state. As the country reflects on its rapid rise and looks to its future, our reporter Isabel Wang takes a closer look at its ties with Taiwan.

Transcript

00:00Flags and festive signs lined the streets of Singapore, just days before its 60th anniversary.

00:08The city-state was a strong ally of the Republic of China, Taiwan's official name.

00:16From 1973 to 1990, Singapore's founding father Li Guangyao maintained close ties with several

00:23Taiwanese politicians, including former President Jiang Jingguo, and even visited Taiwan more than 25 times.

00:31He also opened a door to cross-strait negotiations between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China,

00:37or PRC, when Singapore hosted the Guong talks in 1993.

00:42Li Kuan Yeo used to visit Taiwan quite a bit in his private capacity, and he would meet with Jiang Jingguo.

00:48You can actually also see some of the correspondence that the two individuals,

00:53as well as some of their family members, had with each other at the Academia Historica in Taiwan.

00:59But since Singapore switched diplomatic recognition to China in 1990,

01:04its relations with Taiwan have mainly developed through business ties.

01:08And Singapore's dynamic startup environment is attracting interest from Taiwan, especially in areas like chips and AI.

01:15Yeah, especially I think in Taiwan, of course, we are the best in semiconductors, and we have a lot of

01:23hardware talent. Yeah. And in Singapore, they are more focused on software development, and also,

01:30they are also emphasized for AI. So, a lot of Taiwanese friends, they tell me they want to come to

01:38Singapore because this is a hub to go to international stage. If you want to approach the international

01:44company, Singapore is definitely a good price. And these business exchanges are a two-way street,

01:50with Singapore startups also looking towards Taiwan. We will bring a few of our startups to go to Taiwan,

01:56Kaohsiung, Taipei, and to open some doors, opportunity for Singapore startups. Likewise,

02:04we are also bringing Taiwanese startups into Singapore because they feel that they want to

02:09focus on expansion into Southeast Asia or even Asia-Pacific. Taiwan's new sales fund policy aims

02:16to boost ties with economies and cultures in Southeast Asia. And Singapore is playing a key role.

02:22As a major financial and logistic hub, it's become central to that policy, with Taiwan's government

02:28investing more on education exchanges and collaborations on semiconductor supply chains.

02:33As Singapore turns 60, its long-standing connections with Taiwan reflect how a partnership can be resilient

02:40in a region that is evolving. Howard Zhang and Li Xue, Isabel Wan in Singapore for Taiwan Plus.

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