Ravi Menon: Powering the next stage of Singapore FinTech Keynote address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Singapore-China (Chongqing) Financial Summit, via Video Conference from Singapore, 23 November 2020. * * * Mayor Tang, Minister Teo, Assistant Minister Li, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Welcome to the 3rd Singapore-China (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative (CCI) Financial Summit. Let me first thank Chongqing for hosting this Summit. We are honoured to have with us representatives from all ten ASEAN central banks. The global economy is recovering from one of the deepest recessions in history. With COVID19 still raging globally, the recovery has been uneven and remains uncertain. Yet, East Asia – especially China and ASEAN – has held up relatively well. China reacted decisively to contain the pandemic. Its economy has rebounded and GDP has recovered to above pre-COVID levels. ASEAN is not far behind, with ASEAN-5 expected to grow by 7% q-o-q in Q3. Trade between China and ASEAN is booming again. As the rest of the world takes longer to recover, we must step up economic and financial integration between China and ASEAN to sustain the economic recovery in the region. Financial connectivity can play a particularly vital role in supporting this. Taking Stock Through the CCI over the past 5 years, Chongqing and Singapore have strengthened financial connectivity between the Western Region and ASEAN. Corporates from Chongqing as well as the broader Western Region have found Singapore an attractive destination to raise financing.

We are already seeing some progress. Singapore’s Networked Trade Platform, which is a trade and logistics ecosystem, and China’s National Single Window, are now linked. This has enabled direct exchanges of digital customs documents between Singapore and China. Customs declarations can now be paperless and easier. But there is more to do by way of digitalisation to make trade flows and its financing smoother, cheaper and faster. Here are some suggestions. Chongqing and Singapore can jointly explore digitising Bills of Lading for trade along the ILSTC. Bills of Lading are one of the key documents that underpin international trade. But despite its cost and inefficiency, paper Bills of Lading remain the default. There are already electronic equivalents. Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is piloting TradeTrust, which allows firms to generate and transmit verifiable electronic Bills of Lading. We can also explore connecting our trade platforms digitally to seamlessly exchange trade documents. We can create a sandbox to conduct trade along the ILSTC using electronic Bills of Lading and other negotiable trade instruments. FinTechs from China and ASEAN can develop innovative solutions for an end-to-end digitalised trade platform. Let us make trade between China and ASEAN safer, faster, and more efficient. In March this year, 25 tonnes of citrus from Zhongxian County were shipped from Chongqing to Singapore in 13 days via the ILSTC, this is half the usual time taken. Perhaps the next import of citrus to Singapore can be even faster through an end-to-end digitalised trade process along the ILSTC.