Search

4.186. There are no nationality requirements for officers and crews serving on Singapore registered ships; foreign certificates of competency are accepted. (...) Singapore is a party to all major IMO conventions on ship safety and marine pollution prevention.

Table A3.1 Selected tax and non-tax incentives, and SME support, 2020
Economic Development Board
Scheme: Resource Efficiency Grant for Energy
Description: Co-funding to achieve greenhouse gas emissions abatement. Funding support of up to 50% of qualifying costs.
Eligibility: Singapore-registered companies in the manufacturing and data centre sectors, with group annual sales turnover of more than SGD 500 million.

Table A3.2 Changes to SPS requirements for food products, October 2015-August 2020
Trade-related measure: Draft Food (Amendment) Regulations 2015
Brief description: (...) requirement that food products labelled as "organic" (or similar terms) must be certified as organic under an inspection and certification system that complies with the Codex Guidelines for the Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically Produced Foods (...).
Effective date: February 2016
Link to Singapore Food Agency (SFA) website/WTO notification and date: https://sso.agc.gov.sg/SL/SFA1973-RG1; G/SPS/N/SGP/56, 27/10/2015

Singapore has also developed infrastructure to optimize the use of scarce resources, strengthen our companies' competitiveness, and support new growth sectors. For instance, Jurong Town Corporation's (JTC) Surface Engineering Hub and Chemicals Hub consist of shared facilities, such as a centralised wastewater treatment plant and fire-water retention tanks. Companies can make use of these shared facilities and in turn, reduce their capital investment and operating costs. The 600-ha Jurong Innovation District is another initiative. When ready, the District will host several new growth sectors, including advanced manufacturing, robotics, urban solutions, clean technology and smart logistics. The District will also support Singapore's manufacturing value chains in these new growth sectors, including through functions such as research and development, design, prototyping, production and supply chain management. For instance, companies within the District will have access to the research and engineering capabilities of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, a full-fledged comprehensive and research intensive university.

Research, innovation and enterprise (RIE) remain cornerstones of Singapore's knowledge based and innovation-driven economy. To this end, Singapore has committed S$19 billion in funding for the RIE2020 Plan (2016 to 2020) to develop research & design capabilities within industries and nurture innovative enterprises to spur economic growth. This is an 18% increase over the budget allocated in the previous 5 year plan (2011 to 2015). The RIE2020 Plan will focus on areas including Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering; Health and Biomedical Sciences; Urban Solutions and Sustainability; and Services and the Digital Economy. (...)

(...) Singapore has also maintained a pragmatic and open approach at the WTO. Singapore's participation in plurilateral initiatives where benefits are multilateralized, such as the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the ongoing Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), reflect its view that such efforts will contribute to greater liberalisation at the WTO and strengthen the multilateral trading system.

Singapore has put in place policies to reduce its Greenhouse Gas Emissions by switching from fuel oil to natural gas. Today, about 95% of Singapore's electricity is generated from natural gas. To meet the longer term demand for natural gas, Singapore has put in place a Competitive Licensing Framework to allow flexibility in importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) supplies on a tranche-by-tranche basis. This allows suppliers to bid in an open and competitive process to supply the next tranche of LNG to Singapore.

(...) Import controls are maintained by various administering agencies mainly for health, safety, security and environmental reasons, or under international agreements. The control regimes for goods subject to import prohibition and automatic or non-automatic licensing remain unchanged.

Export controls are implemented mainly for health, safety, security, or environmental reasons or to fulfil international commitments. (...)

Following parliamentary elections in 2015, in October of the same year the Government announced the creation of a Committee on the Future Economy (CFE). The CFE will build on and update the report by the Economic Strategies Committee of 2010, taking into account new global and domestic developments. The Committee will be chaired by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) as deputy, and aims to complete its work by end-2016. The CFE will address five areas: (...) (iv) Cities – to recommend strategies to enhance infrastructure and develop sustainable urban spaces; (...)