Orient Magazine Issue 73 - September 2019 | Page 56

Orient - The Official Magazine of the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore - Issue 73 September 2019

The Future of Trade – An Energy and Infrastructure Perspective

On 22nd May, BritCham hosted a packed-house breakfast event featuring HM’s Trade Commissioner for the Asia Pacific, Natalie Black, as keynote speaker, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Peter Godfrey, APAC Managing Director of the Energy Institute, featuring Satvinder Singh, Assistant CEO of Enterprise Singapore, Wesley Mort, Senior VP UK desk at ASEAN HSBC and Tim Rockell, Director of KPMG’s Energy and Natural Resources Sector and Chairman of the Chamber’s Energy and Utilities committee.

CONTEXT
The Asian region will play an increasingly dominant role in global trade over the next decade. More than 50% of the world population and around 35-40% of global economic wealth is already residing in the Asian region, with purchasing-power parity growing at significantly higher annual rates than anywhere else.

As Asian economies develop and become more capable, the trade intensity of manufactured goods will continue to decline. Low wages are no longer the driving force in global trade flows, but services in the form of more specialist business, legal, financial, IT and other professional services, telecommunications and transportation are on the rise.

Historically, intra-regional trade within the Asian region has been relatively small compared to the wealthier West. But as countries within Asia become more affluent and developed, there is growing pressure to redress this balance in favour of more regional connectivity as a means of addressing both security and further development of competitive capability.

Whilst in the past, globalisation was seen by most as developing low-cost production. Today, there is a move towards investment in higher skilled work-forces and infrastructure, rather than enabling localised production aimed at developing market share within a rapidly growing regional ecosystem.

The region’s sustained economic growth, increasing population, expanding industrialisation and rapid urbanisation are driving strong growth in energy demand.

Ensuring that energy supplies are adequate to meet that growth in ways that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable, together with the challenge to substantially decarbonise & create more efficient energy systems & circular economies in line with climate change objectives creates a vast new set of challenges for policymakers.