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SINGAPORE : Trade between Singapore and the European Union is expected to continue to grow, despite an anticipated slowdown in the global economy.
Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang has highlighted four key sectors of growth. He was speaking at a lunch function on Friday to celebrate Europe Day.
The European Union is a key market for Singapore. According to some estimates, trade between the two will grow by 11-12 percent in 2008.
Speaking at the European Chamber of Commerce Europe Day lunch, Mr Lim spoke of the growing importance of the Eurozone.
He said: "In this era of globalisation, the future direction that Europe chooses will have a profound impact on Singapore and on the rest of the world."
The EU is Singapore's second largest trading partner after Malaysia, with bilateral trade reaching an all-time high of S$97.5 billion last year.
The minister said Singapore hopes to increase ties with Europe in manufacturing, transport engineering, biomed, and new growth areas such as clean energy and environmental technology.
Holger Standertskjold, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation, European Commission to Singapore, said: "The strongest (area) is environment technology; Europe has the cutting-edge knowledge, cutting edge technology, and that is the one that is going to drive the development of environmental issues in the future.
"We are quite confident that this is an area where EU and Singapore can continue to work strongly in the years to come."
EU companies in Singapore said they are looking forward to better access when a free-trade pact kicks in.
Mr Standertskjold said: "Singapore has free trade agreements with other countries such as the US, Japan, and Australia. Under these (agreements), those countries... have better access to the market than the EU has. And we hope that we can redress this in the forthcoming free-trade agreement."
There are currently more than 7,000 European companies with a presence in Singapore.
The manufacturing sector accounts for a quarter of Singapore's GDP growth, and last year, European companies contributed to more than half of Singapore's manufacturing investment at S$8.4 billion. - CNA/ms
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