(2 days, 18 hours ago)
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The Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security (Mr Douglas Alexander)
The Government will shortly end negotiations with Singapore on the UK-Singapore bilateral investment treaty.
Negotiations were launched in March 2023 to strengthen the UK-Singapore investment relationship, through agreeing modern provisions to guarantee high standards of fair treatment for investors, in line with a commitment in the 2020 UK-Singapore free trade agreement. As British investors in Singapore now benefit from the high-standard investment protections gained through our membership of the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership (having formally joined in December 2024), we are ending negotiations on the UK-Singapore BIT. We will instead focus on efforts to further facilitate and promote investment and to boost our economic growth, as well as to build on the stock of UK investment in Singapore, and Singapore’s stock of investment in the UK, which stand at £15.7 billion and £19.3 billion respectively.
The strong co-operative relationship between the UK and Singapore extends beyond investment. On digital trade, seven memoranda of understanding signed alongside the UK-Singapore digital economy agreement facilitate co-operation in several key areas, including fintech and lawtech services. Trade digitalisation pilots conducted under the DEA demonstrated significant business benefits to trade in goods, including a 40% reduction in trade processing time, an 89% reduction in paperwork, and a 67% improvement in staff productivity. We are looking forward to continuing our close collaboration on digital innovation.
To further strengthen our trading relationship, we will continue to work closely with Singapore, as part of CPTPP, to modernise trade rules and promote deeper co-operation with other economies, including through accessions and the general review.
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