ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr will lead a trade mission to Singapore this week, which will build on Canberra’s strong connections with Singapore and renew tourism, trade, business, and investment opportunities.
The mission spans trade, investment, tourism promotion, education, and health.
A strong commitment to Singapore is essential to international airline services returning, Mr Barr argued.
The Chief Minister will meet senior representatives from Singapore Airlines, the Singapore Tourism Board, and the Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations for the Singapore Government to work towards the return of international flights and increased tourism and trade opportunities between the two jurisdictions.
Strengthening these connections will help Canberra’s tourism industry to recover back to the $2.5 billion in visitor expenditure recorded before the pandemic, Mr Barr said.
The ACT Government is pursuing opportunities to attract further investment into Canberra and local businesses in line with its responsible investment values. This includes the recently released Build-To-Rent affordable housing model.
Cultural connections are also being renewed. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Singapore Botanic Gardens and the National Arboretum Canberra will include Wellington through the Wellington Botanic Garden. Over the last four years, the two original parties have worked together on staff exchanges and learning opportunities.
The mission will also support local businesses with their activities in Singapore, including Agri-gate, who are exporting premium regional produce to Singapore.
The Chief Minister will also tour the Temasek Polytechnic Cyber Training Security Operations Centre to investigate how they’ve developed relationships with industry, and whether a similar facility at CIT campus – Woden could benefit Canberra’s local industry.
ACT health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith will join the latter part of the trade mission with a focus on health and wellbeing.
Ms Stephen-Smith will tour multiple health facilities, in particular Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital to observe the impact of the recent ‘go-live’ with the Epic Digital Health Record – the same system that will be implemented across the ACT public hospital and health system in November 2022 and to learn more about health infrastructure and systems design.
She will meet with officials to learn more about how technology, innovation and workforce initiatives are supporting the Singapore health system.
The Minister will also visit the Bukit Canberra facility – a uniquely designed sport and community hub – giving the neighbourhood of Sembawang a holistic facility for active living and wellness.
The cost of the Chief Minister’s delegation is approximately $21,500. The cost of the Health Minister’s delegation is approximately $13,500. These costs are fully met from within the ACT Executive budget and published in the quarterly Ministerial travel reports.
