Singapore firms continue to value China as an important market, and the Southeast Asian country's extensive business networks and familiarity with Southeast Asian markets make it a valuable partner for Chinese enterprises looking to expand their regional footprint, an executive of the Singapore Business Federation said.
China remains a significant market for Singapore businesses, underpinned by its vast consumer market, evolving demand and focus on high-quality development, Mark Lee, chairman of SBF, said during an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the ongoing 9th China International Import Expo held in Shanghai on Friday.
The federation is leading a delegation of 54 Singapore firms to the CIIE. Since the inaugural CIIE in 2018, Singapore businesses have generated about 2.79 billion yuan ($420 million) in cumulative trade value through the event.
Spanning established household names and emerging businesses, participating Singaporean firms at the expo highlight the country's competitive strength in food, health and wellness, consumer innovation, financial services and professional solutions.
They include See Hai Tat Medical Hall (Singapore) Pte Ltd, which looks to grow its consumer presence in China, and Prima Food Pte Ltd, which wants to use the CIIE to explore opportunities in the Chinese market.
With Singapore set to be the ASEAN chair in 2027, the SBF's participation in the CIIE this year — as it has done across all previous editions of the expo — further highlights its role as a strategic bridge for Chinese enterprises looking to expand into the ASEAN market, Lee said.
"Singapore features transparent, trusted legal frameworks and strong intellectual property protection, which helps safeguard technology rights as solutions expand into ASEAN and other regions. We are also a financing hub," Lee said, adding that this explains why many of the country's professional services partners are at the CIIE. They include banks, advisory firms, human resources consultants, legal service providers and trade compliance specialists.
He highlighted that China is among the global leaders in AI and digitization. Singaporean businesses want to work closely and conduct business with their Chinese counterparts, and such collaborations are already underway.
Lee raised the example of Pony.ai, a Chinese autonomous vehicle AI company, which partnered with ComfortDelGro, a Singaporean transport operator that runs taxi and fleet services. They launched a robotaxi pilot in China's Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and following the pilot, a robotaxi service was rolled out earlier this year in a designated area in Singapore, using Pony.ai's technology.
"ComfortDelGro stated that the pilot supports its broader global strategy covering China and Singapore, since it provides fleet management services across multiple markets. This illustrates a strong model: proven Chinese technology, localized by Singapore companies, with plans to scale into other regions and countries," Lee said.
Singapore and China share longstanding economic ties, with bilateral trade in goods reaching approximately 895.9 billion yuan last year.
