admin Singapore will progressively facilitate international travel with countries that have managed COVID-19 well to reassert the city-state’s position as a business, travel and talent hub, a senior minister told Parliament recently.
Details on Regaining the Ace Travel Hub Position
Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong, who is co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force, said that as a “small and open economy”, Singapore cannot close itself off to the world. “Many parts of our economy require a steady flow of people in and out of Singapore – be it workers or visitors,” Gan stated.
“This is a critical move that will allow us to reassert Singapore’s position as a business, travel and talent hub,” he said. Fully vaccinated people could also travel and do business “more freely”, he added. As a business hub, many of Singapore’s executives have to travel, while the tourism and MICE industry, and Singapore’s air hub status, “critically” depends on international connectivity. Many in the international community have also not been able to visit their families since the start of the pandemic, he said.
Regaining Connectivity
“Globally, Singapore will likely be one of the highest vaccinated countries in the world. We will be able to regain strong air and maritime connectivity to a large number of countries, while ensuring that our healthcare system is well-functioning and not overstretched by COVID-19 cases,” said the minister.
He added that businesses have continued to “show confidence” in Singapore’s “strong fundamentals” during the pandemic, with investors committing SGD 17.2 billion in investment in 2020. This is the highest in 12 years. Singapore has also attracted “significant” investments from “major biomedical and electronics companies” including Sanofi, BioNTech and GlobalFoundries. Gan sketched out a roadmap for businesses in Singapore to return to normal, offering the possibility of nearly all social and workplace restrictions being lifted.
“As our vaccination coverage increases, we will be in a much stronger position to ease our COVID-19 measures safely and confidently,” he said in a fifth update on the whole-of-government response to COVID-19. As such, the government will begin to adjust its safe management measures in stages, subject to trends in serious cases. This could mean fewer restrictions on social gatherings, larger dine-in groups and lower requirements and higher capacity for events. Vaccinated individuals will be able to engage in a wider range of social activities and in larger groups, while unvaccinated individuals may only do so with negative pre-event testing results.
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