00:00The world is reconfiguring, globalization is reconfiguring, and we are basically following that trend.
00:06We're supporting our customers, follow that trend.
00:08What's important here is to realize that there's been major shifts.
00:13So 20 years ago, you could summarize global trade by saying China manufactures, the U.S. consumer buys, and that's global trade.
00:20Subsequently, China's been manufacturing for the world.
00:24What we're seeing more recently is Asia buys Asia.
00:27We're seeing China manufacture in the world as opposed to for the world.
00:32This Asia buys Asia trend has supported a lot of intra-Asia, the wider Asia, Asia, Middle East, supported a lot of trade within this region.
00:41It supported a lot of foreign direct investment in this region.
00:45It supported a lot of employment in this region.
00:48And the way we look at it is with more integration within this wider region, we will add 1.8% to GDP across the region.
00:56Now, the U.S. tariffs will obviously hurt, but the estimate we have is that they will hurt around 0.5% GDP.
01:04So therefore, net-net, this region can benefit from greater integration within, you know, for trade and for FDI.
01:13And, you know, Francine, this is – these reconfigurations have been, you know, happening throughout our history.
01:19We've been born 160 years ago here in Asia, and we've been 148 years in Singapore.
01:25So I want to say, how do we help our customers?
01:27Muscle memory.
01:28What has changed is that there are certain assets which have now become or be deemed national security assets, such as code, Gen.AI type code, such as chips, semiconductors, the most advanced ones of them, such as data and cloud.
01:47And those assets are going to fragment.
01:50Those assets are going to have national boundaries.
01:52You know, data has had national boundaries for some time.
01:56Data visas are required to move data around.
01:59Regulation has started to have lots of national boundaries.
02:02And there's going to be more highly strategic assets that will have national boundaries.
02:07And we, as a financial system, but also all our customers, will have to respect that and ensure that we're protecting, you know, the national considerations for these.
02:17But you step out of these assets, and there is a multitude, there is a huge ocean of opportunities where business is still conducted on a cross-border basis, and business will continue to be conducted on a cross-border basis.
02:31And we believe that is – that's going to be the case.
02:32And we believe that is – that's going to be the case.
Be the first to comment