Past Events 2022

The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) and the German Centre for Industry and Trade (GC) were pleased to host the Christmas B2B Networking on 6 December 2022. More than 80 guests – comprising SGC members and representatives of businesses based at the German Centre – attended the festive networking event. During this final gathering for the year, participants had the chance to reconnect with friends from the business community over Christmas food and authentic German mulled wine. Furthermore, three lucky draw winners went home with prizes such as luxury hotel stays and a two-way flight ticket to Bangkok. The chamber extends a huge thank you to all participants and sponsors of this B2B event (The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, Chan Brothers, M Social, and Ritter Sport), and we look forward to many more fruitful networking opportunities in the new year ahead.

We were delighted to be welcomed by Eileen Chua at the SAP Office for the last SGC Advisory Council Meeting of 2022! The meeting ended with an exciting tour at the SAP Experience Center Singapore – thank you SAP for letting us explore innovative solutions and technologies through real-life demos, showcases, and presentations across the SAP solution portfolio.

Thank you to our Advisory Council and Board Members for your continued support throughout the year! Jens Ruebbert (President), Shirley Qi (Vice President), Friedhelm Best, Eileen Chua, Sabine Florian, Douglas Foo, Martin Hayes, Joerg Kalisch, Manohar Khiatani, Holger Lindner, Andrea Lorenz, Alexander Melchers BBM, Dr. Thai Lai Pham, Tim Philippi, Carola Richter, Norbert Dr. Riedel, Dr. Claus Trenner, Sam Chee Wah, Mak Swee Wah, Dr. Armin Wiesler, Sabrina Winter, Tom Wolf, Burkhard Ziegenhorn

Markus Leichum, SGC Divisional Head – Competence Centre for German Export Finance, hosted a joint ECA (Euler Hermes/Atradius) seminar in Jakarta - together with Stephan Naber and Guido Minnaert from Atradius Dutch State Business - with focus on the advantages and opportunities of doing business with #Germany and the #Netherlands.

Together with around 100 participants - including many Indonesian companies - the advantages of working with #ECA's were discussed. Insightful experiences have been shared by Alfred Fahringer from Siemens Healthineers and Ashish Makhija from Philips Medical Capital (PMC) APAC, Leonard Anilaputra Eggert, CFA from KfW IPEX-Bank and Do Kyun Kim from ING Nederland.

Keynotes from the German Ambassador Ms. Ina Lepel and Ms. Natasja van der Geest, Deputy Head of Economic Department Embassy of the Netherlands in Jakarta, provided insights about the trade partnership between Germany, the Netherlands and Indonesia.

A sincere thank you to all speakers and EKONID (AHK Indonesien) who provided great support during the planning process and the execution of this successful event.

The feedback of participants is overwhelmingly positive.

What a great opportunity to strengthen the German/Dutch business relationship with our partners in Indonesia.

In the last week of November 2022, SGC had the pleasure of hosting a business delegation from Germany, comprising companies specialising in Civil Security Technologies. Five companies, Detack GmbH, DRACOON GmbH, SoSafe, Advancis Software & Services, CIBORIUS Gruppe, and TASSTA GmbH, with a total of 10 representatives from the areas of security technologies and cyber security, were part of this trade mission by the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz.

SGC organised close to 40 meetings with potential Singaporean business partners, distributors, stakeholders and clients for the German companies, with some still set to take place virtually in the coming days. During these meetings, the delegation had the chance to discuss potential collaborations with Singaporean companies during networking events such as the Cybersecurity Conference, as well as the business symposium, which you will read about in the post below. Our thanks and appreciation goes out to our partners for making this a success! Please click this link to view the full report on SGC's LinkedIn page.

The business symposium as part of the visiting delegation from #Germany on the topic of Civil #Security #Technologies & #Services within the market entry program funded by the German Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz was a full success! The delegation saw 5 German companies travelling to #Singapore.

The event was opened by Dr Tim Philippi followed by keynote speeches from Tony Low (AiSP), and William Seak (ACSA) as well as presentations by the German delegates. The symposium has undeniably shown the high interest in innovative security technologies and solutions from German companies in the fields of #cybersecurity, #building & #perimeter security as well as #event security.

The keynote speeches furthermore presented countless business opportunities for collaboration between Singaporean and German companies to jointly develop and boost solutions that tackle common issues, such as rising manpower costs for physical security, high talent competition and increasing cyberthreats.

A big thank you to our delegates Detack GmbH, DRACOON GmbH, SoSafe, Advancis Software & Services, CIBORIUS, TASSTA GmbH and TESCON Sicherheitssysteme AG for the interesting and insightful presentations.

Our thanks and appreciation to our supporting partners AiSP (Association of Information Security Professionals, Association Of Certified Security Agencies ( ACSA ), Singapore Industrial Automation Association, as well as our German delegation acquisition partner SBS systems for business solutions GmbH.

Our guests thoroughly enjoyed the newly launched venue Catapult by CapitaLand with its open concept. We compliment CapitaLand, a gold member of SGC, on the opening of yet another beautiful and well-equipped tech venue and look forward to many more events!

SGC Dialogue with Mr Jens Hildebrandt, Chief Representative of the Delegation of German Industry & Commerce Beijing More than 60 SGC members participated in this engaging session where Mr Hildebrandt spoke about the opportunities and risks faced by German businesses within the #Chinese market. He also shared his professional experiences of working under China’s Zero-COVID strategy and managing economic complications brought about by #geopolitical tensions. On the other hand, China regards Germany as a reliable and trustworthy partner with high-quality products and services, while Germany views China as an important trade counterpart. Mr Hildebrandt provided valuable advice on navigating upcoming policies following the recent 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CCP) so that both countries can work closely on mutual grounds to stabilise economic ties and strengthen bilateral relations. The #SGC extends its thanks and appreciation to Mr Hildebrandt for the enriching session.

The Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business (APK) took place over the weekend, bringing together high-ranking officials from the Singapore and German governments as well as industry bigwigs from businesses in the APAC region and Germany.

Assembling at this event were APK co-chairs; Germany Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and Vice-Chancellor, Dr Robert Habeck and Asia-Pacific Committee (APA) Chairman and Siemens CEO, Dr Roland Busch, German Federal Chancellor, Mr Olaf Scholz, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lawrence Wong, and many other representatives.

For the first time ever since APK's inception, both Mr Scholz and Mr Wong provided their keynote addresses as German Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore respectively and shared their visions for stronger and deeper relations between Singapore and Germany. Another noteworthy occasion was the signing of the Germany-Singapore Framework for Sustainability and Innovation (FSI) at the evening reception of the APK Conference to deepen the bilateral economic relations. The interministerial agreement was signed by Dr Habeck and Singapore’s Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, Mr S Iswaran.

The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) is very happy and proud to have been the local host of the APK 2022, and to have worked with the BMWK and APA to make it a huge success! Please click here to view our APK coverage on SGC’s LinkedIn page. The Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business (APK) took place over the weekend, bringing together high-ranking officials from the Singapore and German governments as well as industry bigwigs from businesses in the APAC region and Germany.

Assembling at this event were APK co-chairs; Germany Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and Vice-Chancellor, Dr Robert Habeck and Asia-Pacific Committee (APA) Chairman and Siemens CEO, Dr Roland Busch, German Federal Chancellor, Mr Olaf Scholz, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lawrence Wong, and many other representatives.

For the first time ever since APK's inception, both Mr Scholz and Mr Wong provided their keynote addresses as German Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore respectively and shared their visions for stronger and deeper relations between Singapore and Germany. Another noteworthy occasion was the signing of the Germany-Singapore Framework for Sustainability and Innovation (FSI) at the evening reception of the APK Conference to deepen the bilateral economic relations. The interministerial agreement was signed by Dr Habeck and Singapore’s Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, Mr S Iswaran.

The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) is very happy and proud to have been the local host of the APK 2022, and to have worked with the BMWK and APA to make it a huge success! Please click here to view our APK coverage on SGC’s LinkedIn page.

The SGC hosted a delegation organised by AHK Australia on Saturday, November 12th. The delegation travelled to Singapore on the occasion of the 17th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business. Taking place at the SGC office were insightful discussions with MAN Energy as well as Airbus about their hydrogen innovations and push towards a zero-emission future. Furthermore, the delegation heard about the current situation regarding free trade agreements from Mr Robin Hoenig, Divisional Head, Trade Policy Competence Centre (Asia/ASEAN), SGC. Our thanks and appreciation to the delegation for their visit

It was a great night at the Women's Cross-Chamber After Work event. About 100 professional women across the European chambers in Singapore met up in a casual and relaxing setting to build new connections and empower one another in their career goals. Held at the LeBar Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa, this networking event was organised by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce (SwedCham)'s Women4Women Forum, in partnership with the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) as well as 10 other European national business chambers.

The SGC's Digitalisation & Innovation Committee hosted a Briefing with the Bavarian Minister for Digital Affairs, Ms Judith Gerlach, on November 2nd. Ms Gerlach was joined by the Committee’s Chairpersons Dr Markus Waechter and Ms Evelyn Stier as well as the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs Delegates. The SGC member attendees were invited to an interactive Q&A session with the Minister and her delegates. It sparked a vibrant discussion on the digital environment in both Singapore and Germany: raising issues such as citizen-oriented online services, data protection in the administrative field, and digital solutions in many aspects of peoples’ daily lives. In her final statement, Minister Gerlach called for a vision for digitalisation in Germany and to the federal states, much like in Singapore. The SGC thanks Ms Gerlach, Dr Waechter, Ms Stier, the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs Delegates, and all participants for the enriching and insightful event!

Last Thursday evening was a great success with the Berlin Goes Singapore Networking and Pitch Event as part of the visiting delegation from Berlin. The evening was opened by Dr Tim Philippi, Executive Director of the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce / AHK Singapur and Markus Facklam, Coordinator International at Berlin Partner. The pitch event has once again shown the high interest in innovative solutions from Berlin companies. The delegates presented to an audience of more than 70 attendees from local businesses, start-ups, international enablers and stakeholders. Thank you to our delegates for the interesting pitches 1000 Kelvin, Formo, , NursIT Institute GmbH, Medigo GmbH, DocVox, IoTAL, ELO Mobility GmbH, Greenbox Smart Energy , Swobbee, @Laife UG and Unitz.

Our thanks and appreciation to our collaborators and supporting partners Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH, Urban Innovation, AsiaBerlin. #BerlinGoesSingapore #Innovation #Sustainability #PartnerForTrade #scaleups #medtech #iot #emobility #network

The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry & Commerce (SGC) and the German Centre for Industry and Trade (GC) were pleased to host the B2B Networking & ITAP Closing Party on 20 October 2022. More than 60 guests – comprising SGC members, representatives of businesses based at the German Centre, and delegates from the ITAP Conference – attended the party to mingle and reconnect with friends from the business community. The B2B event moved on to an exciting lucky draw, where some of the guests went home with amazing prizes and a big smile. The chamber extends a huge thank you to all sponsors of the B2B event, lucky draw, and beer refreshments respectively; DATRON SEA, Conrad Hotel and Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, and Erdinger.

The SGC Dialogue with Mr Heng Chee How, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, Singapore, was held on Thursday, 13^th October 2022 at the Shangri-La Singapore. Mr Heng spoke to SGC members on the concept of Total Defence and how the business community can play an individual and collective role in various pillars of our country’s defence. Mr Heng also explained about National Service (NS) as a crucial aspect of Total Defence and how businesses could share manpower resources, implement NS-friendly Human Resource policies, and provide upgrading opportunities to enhance the skills and experiences of NS personnel in the workplace.

The Dialogue later moved to a panel discussion that was moderated by Dr Claus Trenner, Vice-President, SGC and member of the Advisory Council on Community Relations in Defence’s (ACCORD) Employer & Business unit. Both Mr Heng and Dr Trenner spoke about topics, which included the NS Mark, NS Mark (Gold) and the Total Defence Awards, which are efforts by the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) to recognise businesses that support NS. The SGC would like to thank Mr Heng for engaging and encouraging our members to be a part of Singapore’s defence efforts.

An SGC Healthcare & Life Sciences Committee initiated event

'The Role of Government and Industry in Shaping an Innovation Ecosystem' presentation was held on Monday, October 10th by the SGC's Healthcare & Life Sciences Committee. The event was organised as a platform for the cross exchange of information between Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) and members from the healthcare and life sciences sectors. Ms Sabine Florian, Deputy General Manager SGC, commenced the event with a warm welcome, and Dr Armin Wiesler, Co-chair of the Healthcare & Life Sciences Committee, followed with a brief introduction of the event’s topic.

Mr Chee How Lee, Assistant Vice President, Healthcare at the EDB, spoke about the booming biomedical industry in Singapore and how EDB supports collaborations with strategic connections, funding, and investments in start-ups. He also highlighted Singapore's strong economic stability and positioning as a biomedical hub with robust R&D, technological capabilities, and its advocacy for innovative sustainability.

From an industry perspective, Dr Jennifer Bourland from Evonik (SEA) Pte Ltd, provided an overview of Creavis, the company's strategic innovation unit. Dr Bourland also shared how Singapore was viewed by Evonik as the key starting point to internationalise R&D efforts due to its well-developed "living lab" infrastructure, and a beneficial environment for open innovation and partnerships. After the presentations, a lively Q&A – moderated by Mr Maximilian Englisch, Co-chair Healthcare & Life Sciences Committee – took place with both speakers and attendees. The SGC would like to thank the hosts, speakers, and all participants for the enriching and insightful event!

Guests gathered for a night of networking to celebrate the Day of German Unity at the majestic Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The event welcomed the Guest-of-Honour, Mr Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transport, Members of Parliament, Mr Sitoh Yih Pin and Mr Henry Quek. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the German Embassy in Singapore for co-hosting the Day of German Unity with the SGC, and to all members of the chamber for their kind attendance!

The SGC Chemical Industries Committee was pleased to host the ‘Inflation and Talent Management in Singapore’ by guest speaker, Mr Mikael Yitzhakov, Regional Principal Consultant at Lincoln Group. The session was moderated by the Committee Chairman, Dr Bernhard Hackl. Mr Yitzhakov spoke on committee members about Singapore’s recovery in employment in the post-pandemic setting, as well as economic challenges and the impact on the cost of living, employment and the job market. The SGC thanks Mr Yitzhakov for his timely and insightful presentation.

Securing skilled workers is a priority task of #labour market policy and a key issue for the federal government of Germany. Particularly against the backdrop of the ongoing transformation, increasing participation in continuing education is of enormous importance.

Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce / AHK Singapur Board Members Friedhelm Besta and Dr Tim Philippi, HR Chair Eckart E. Jensen, Deputy General Manager Sabine Florian and Dominique Herold welcomed Deputy Chief of Mission Christopher Hallier and the Delegation of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales) to exchange experiences and impressions of the labour situation and challenges in #Singapore and #Germany.

It was a pleasure to host Patricia Steiner, Alexandra Charles and Martina Nießen from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Thank you for making the long journey to Singapore to discuss with us about this important topic.

The Digitalization & Innovation Committee, Co-chaired by us, Dr Markus Waechter, Managing Director TUM Asia Pte Ltd and Ms Evelyn Stier, Global Head of IT Business Consulting & Digitalization at Siemens Pte Ltd hosted a share and talk session on 15 Sep at the SGC. They welcomed leaders and professionals working in this domain at the meeting and shared their insights on what topics to be discussed that would benefit the committee as well as their respective organizations.

Last week, the #Hessen Representative office at the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce / AHK Singapur welcomed Andreas Damrau from Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH, #HTAI to #Singapore and accompanied him to #Indonesia.

In #Indonesia EKONID (AHK Indonesien) brought Andreas Damrau and Melissa Brandner to Lab Indonesia, a trade fair for laboratory and scientific analytical equipment to find out more about Indonesia’s market potential. As part of the exploration trip to #Jakarta we got connected to various #associations, #stakeholders and #multipliers as well as interested companies during a #networking dinner.

The Indonesian company PT Interbat invited us to their impressive office premises to hear more about the successful #pharmaceutical company

Finally, a market briefing with Frank Melarius from Germany Trade & Invest in Jakarta and Jan Roennfeld, Martin Kohoutek from EKONID (AHK Indonesien) added value to the first FDI trip.

Indonesia with its over 270 million inhabitants, ever-growing GDP and purchasing power per capita is an exciting market for collaboration and our trip marks the beginning of a promising bilateral relationship , we’re looking forward to returning next year to deepen connections and expand our network in Indonesia!

Last week, the #Hessen Representative office at the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce / AHK Singapur welcomed Andreas Damrau from Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH #HTAI to #Singapore and accompanied him to #Indonesia.

We met Goh Wee Hong and heard over dinner about FLEXXON, a fascinating Singapore #scaleup in the #cybersecurity space .

We had the chance to visit the ST Engineering #HQ, Jeannette Leung and Ming Chuan Low shared about the railway sector and showcased some of ST’s latest #innovations.

The main event in Singapore was a #startup roundtable with experts such as Hugo Paquin from TechQuartier, a #launchpad for #tech start-ups in #Hessen and Olaf Jüptner from the Enterprise Europe Network Hessen, the #EEN supports companies in tapping on #EU funding and finding business partners in the EU.

Andreas Damrau gave insights in the Hessen economy and

how #GTAI supports companies on-site and gave individual consultations. Woei Yuan Seng shared about the local start-up #ecosystem and about Singapore as a start-up hub with its upcoming Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology, #SWITCH, where Hessen will participate with its own booth – we’re looking forward to meeting you there in-person! For the open discussion we were joined by Detlef Terzenbach, Dr. from the StartHub Hessen and Tom Pagels from Dentons.

To find out more about business opportunities for #start-ups in #Frankfurt and Hessen, please reach out to representative Melissa Brandner at melissa.brandner@sgc.org.sg.

We had the pleasure of hosting the business delegation from the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) at the NRW Meets Singapore Pitch Event. The evening was opened by Jens Ruebbert, President of the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce / AHK Singapur and Stefan Adam from the German Embassy. Also offering their support for this event were our collaborators, Yazmin Stoffer from NRW.Global Business and Madleen Frauendorf from IHK Nord Westfalen.

The pitch event was a great success and has once again shown the high interest in innovative and sustainable solutions from both Singaporean and German companies. The delegates provided an overview of their business objectives and goals to more than 60 attendees from local and international companies and organisations. We would like to thank our delegates for sharing their valuable insights. Read more about the pitch event on LinkedIn.

The chamber was pleased to host Mr Roland Krueger as our guest speaker in our Meet-the-CEO series. We would like to thank Mr Krueger for his time, sharing with the chamber members.

During the SGC’s Breakfast Briefing at the Goodwood Park Hotel on 24th August 2022, our guest speaker, Ms Hanna Hennig, CIO of Siemens, explained how Siemens is accelerating its Digital Sustainable Transformation plans for sustainable growth and digitalisation.

Ms Hennig shared that digital sustainable transformation is a crucial part of reinventing oneself in today’s changing world, and that it will help businesses transform the backbone of our economies. An example of this was to implement automation on up to 60% of manufacturing to improve productivity and safety. Furthermore, Ms Hennig also commended the chamber’s work on advocating for digitalisation amongst member companies through the SGC’s Digitalisation and Innovation committee. The SGC extends its thanks and appreciation to Ms Hennig for the enriching session!

Mr Pfaff presented during this meeting Lufthansa Group commitment to Net-Zero CO2 Emission by 2050. His company intends to this by using amongst others Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), application of new technology and implementiation of infrastructure and operational efficiency. Also at this meeting was Mr Melchers who informed attendees about re-introducing vocational training in Singapore. This time he likes to introduce logistics and freight forwarding programmes in Singapore.

The successful conference on „Energy Efficiency in the Industry” on 28^th June showed once again the importance of innovative solutions which reduce energy consumption to tackle today´s challenges of reducing CO2-emissions and tackle climate change. Eight German companies pitched their ideas to 80 attendees from local businesses, global players and governmental stakeholders. The company presentations were accompanied by insightful keynote speeches from experts from Germany and Singapore and followed by a networking session. The conference was part of a trade mission as part of the German Energy Solutions Initiative (Exportinitiative Energie), on behalf of the BMWK.

Special thanks to our speakers and participating companies who made this event a success.

We also thank our partners Eclareon GmbH for their support.

During the Midsummer B2B Networking Event, co-hosted by the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce / AHK Singapur and the German Centres Worldwide, held on 23 June 2022, tenants and business associates met and came together like in the good old days, to connect and network.
In a relaxed environment, those present were treated with German food, beers and wine, and participated in the lucky draw where attractive prizes were won. What a cheerful evening! We look forward to more networking events in the future where new connections and collaborations will be forged.

o-initiated by SGC Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee

 This event is supported by Boehringer Ingelheim.

The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) was delighted to collaborate with our colleagues from the American Chamber, British Chamber, and French Chamber in hosting the Cross-Chamber Healthcare Networking Session. Dr Armin Wiesler, Chairman of the Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee from the SGC, gave the opening remarks and underscored how important networking is for chamber members and their collaborative efforts to attaining more exposure especially across the healthcare industry. We would like to thank Boehringer Ingelheim for sponsoring the two-hour event held at the American Club which was attended by over 100 participants. The four national chambers are looking forward to more collective networking sessions in the future.

Members of the chamber, Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action State Secretary Hajduk, German Federal President of Germany, Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the accompanying business delegation, Singapore's Minister of Transport and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relation S Iswaran and invited guests from the Singapore business community took part in this discussion.

Amongst others Marika Lulay, GFT Group and Ullrich Wegner, Peter Cremer Holding GmbH & Co. KG shared their rational for choosing the city state as their regional headquarters.

Piyush Gupta from DBS Bank explained why Singapore is so very well positioned for doing business in Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific regions.

This was an excellent afternoon for deepening the Singapore - German business relations. We are looking forward to deepen the collaboration between our countries!

During our ‘Meet-the-CEO’ event, Mrs Veronika Bienert, Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Financial Services shared the role of Siemens Financial Services as part of Siemens group during the session.

The company’s focus is in the areas of automation, renewables, improvement of carbon footprint, energy transition & sustainability projects. Smart fish farming to upscale local production and pioneer work on ‘energy as a service solution’ are just two of the many projects Siemens Financial Services is engaging in. SGC members engaged in a lively discussion, and Mrs Bienert elaborated in more detail on the requested aspects.

Thank you Mrs Bienert for taking the time to join us and and presenting your company's mission to us.

Together with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Rule of Law Programme Asia, the SGC hosted a hybrid event on the new German Corporate Due Diligence Law (GDDL). Mrs Margit Kunz-Vinluan presented the results of the survey-based study on the impact of the GDDL on sourcing and manufacturing in the Asia Pacific region.

The study showed that the majority of the over 360 participating companies are working on GDDL compliance strategies or already have one in place. However, the surveyed companies are still facing some challenges in complying, such as the legal ambiguity of the law, an insufficient timeframe to ensure full compliance, the lack of specific industry guidelines from the German government, and sufficient social auditors in the target markets.

We would like to thank the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung for the successful collaboration on the study and this event, namely Mr Stefan Samse, Mrs Julia Wellhausen, as well as Mr Martin Knapp from the DIHK in Berlin for his profound and informative explanation of the GDDL. Mr Lukas Glöckner from Haas & Co. Magnettechnik GmbH and Mr Gerhard Mair from ams OSRAM shared their valuable experiences from an industry perspective which was very helpful for the participating companies. Finally, a special thanks goes to Mr Robin Hoenig for the great amount of effort and time spent on conducting this highly informative and insightful study.

Check out the case study here: https://www.sgc.org.sg/sustainable-manufacturing-sourcing-in-apac-region

The SGC hosted an exclusive engagement session with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Mr Yan Carrière-Swallow, Senior Economist at the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department and Dr Davide Malacrino, Economist at the Research Department of the IMF, presented region’s updated forecasts in the global context. Asia and the Pacific remains the world’s most dynamic region despite downgrades to growth outlook for 2022.

Headwinds to the region’s recovery include trade and commodity price spillovers from the Ukraine war, the tightening of financial conditions amid US monetary policy normalisation, and COVID developments in some countries. The IMF team discussed how global trade and value chains were affected by the pandemic and how an increased leverage of the private sector impacts the pace of the recovery globally.

We would like to thank Mr Yan Carrière-Swallow and Dr Davide Malacrino for their profound and insightful presentations and participating in our fruitful panel discussion!

Last Wednesday, our ‘Chemical Industries Committee’ welcomed Mr Marco Jelicic, Senior Specialist, Communications and Advocacy from BASF as a guest speaker. Mr Jelicic spoke about BASF’s sustainability efforts from products to markets and they are aiming for a zero percent carbon emission until 2050. He also added that his company has identified about 45 thousand of its products on their carbon footprints.

Our committee members heard about BASF activities and commitment to sustainability. During the meeting, members shared their views on current events that impact their businesses especially on the topics of rising energy costs, logistics and supply chain issues.

Redefining learning in companies is a pressing issue for companies in Singapore, just as in most countries around the globe. Intense technology changes, as well as new opportunities through #digitalization and #Industry 4.0 can be harvested if the human resources are equipped with the right skills.

Minister for Education, Mr Chan Chun Sing officially opened today’s Workplace Learning Conference which recognised nine companies with the inaugural Workplace learning awards.

All speakers at the event emphasized that bringing the classroom and learning to the company is most important to allow a necessary shift towards adequate skills training on the job. Successful companies take this as their responsibility and collaborate with institutes of higher learning.

Pioneering this learning journey are Nanyang Polytechnic / Temasek Polytechnic with the National Framework for Workplace Learning. #SGC is privileged to partner with #NYP since several years with knowledge sharing and transfer.

Today’s event honoured the first batch of nine Workplace Learning Award recipients. All of them are companies that take workplace learning to the next level and incorporate it in their company culture.

One of them is SGC’s long standing member SICK, represented by Mr Jack Goh, Managing Director. In his speech, he emphasized that companies need continuous upskilling and learning programs for staff at all levels to remain competitive and innovative. We would like to congratulate SICK for their exemplary workplace learning culture and equally congratulate the other eight award recipients, namely

Metropolis Security Systems Pte Ltd
ActiveSG
STLogistics
Jones Lang LaSalle
SBS Transit Ltd
SMRT Corporation Ltd
@ST – Airport Services Pte Ltd
@ST Healthcare Pte Ltd

We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with NACE and thank our project partners Jeanne Liew, Chee Teck Phua, Ms Azizah Mohd, Mr Albert Tan.

Last Monday, our members had an exclusive opportunity to engage with Dr Koh Poh Koon and Ms Gan Siow Huang on current and future hiring policies and raise manpower-related queries.

To prepare for the discussions and provide a better basis for the exchange, the chamber conducted its first Manpower Survey 2022. Findings from the survey was presented at the event.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) introduced and explained the new point-based system (COMPASS) for hiring foreign talent (EP holders). With the insights provided by MOM and our key findings of the survey, our members were provided with important details of the new COMPASS system and attained better clarification on the new process of hiring foreign talent.

We would like to thank Dr Koh Poh Koon and Ms Gan Siow Huang for taking the time to join us in this exclusive engagement session.

SGC had the pleasure of hosting Mr Oliver Steil, Chief Executive Officer, TeamViewer at our Meet-the-CEO event on last Tuesday, 5 April 2022. He spoke on the topic: ‘Mind the gap - How do we ensure that desk-less workers, too, reap the benefits of the digital revolution?’

According to Mr Steil, digital technologies like augmented reality would play a crucial role in digitalising the shop floor and the jobs of blue-collar workers. He spoke about the openness of companies in APAC regarding the adoption of disruptive technologies as well as the importance of a well-functioning ecosystem of businesses in order to drive digital transformation forward.

We would like to thank Mr Oliver Steil for taking his time to join us and sharing his insights. Thank you to our members who attended this event and engaged with Mr Steil in a fruitful discussion!

Following the AGM, we had a highly interactive SGC Business Conference. Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Gan Kim Yong, joined as Guest of Honour and speaker. He spoke on the topic of 'Singapore Economy 2030 Strategy' and focused on the government’s initiative to grow trade activities, including Germany and German companies. Our members raised several questions regarding the topic and Minister Gan shared his insights.

We are very pleased to announce the election outcome of our new 2022/2023 Board at the SGC Annual General Meeting 2022!

Congratulations to our re-elected President Mr Jens Rübbert from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and board members for 2022:
• Mr Friedhelm Best from HIMA Asia Pacific Pte Ltd
• Mr Martin Hayes from Robert Bosch (South East Asia) Pte Ltd (SGC Honorary Secretary)
• Mr Holger Lindner from TÜV SÜD Group
• Ms Andrea Lorenz from Richard Wolf Singapore Pte Ltd
• Dr Thai Lai Pham from Siemens Pte Ltd
• Dr Tim Philippi, Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce / AHK Singapur (SGC Executive Director)
• Ms Shirley Qi from Evonik (SEA) Pte Ltd (SGC Vice-President)
• Mr Sam Chee Wah from Feinmetall Singapore Pte Ltd
• Dr Claus Trenner from Luther Corporate Services Pte Ltd (SGC Vice-President)
• Dr Burkhard Ziegenhorn from Deutsche Bank AG, Singapore Branch (SGC Honorary Treasurer)
• Ms Sabrina Winter from Lufthansa Group

A big Thank You to our outgoing Board Member, Mr Jörg Kalisch from Dexteritas for his dedication, time and support of the chamber over many years!

The SGC would also like to thank all members who joined the AGM at at the Shangri-La Singapore last Wednesday. Please find our published Annual Report 2021. Read more about it here.

The newly formed Regional Logistics Committee met for the first time on 16 March 2022 at SGC. 12 logistics companies who are SGC members attended the initial assembly. Board members who are committee representatives to the committees also attended the meeting.

Members discussed about the mission statement of the committee and pointed out the different topics that covers their interests. Proposed topics have been, amongst others, sustainability aspects of logistics, supply chain interruptions, human resource and vocational training for logistics sector.

The SGC would like to thank Mr Joerg Kalisch from Dexteritas and Mr J. Florian Pfaff from Lufthansa Cargo AG for having accepted the role as interim Chairpersons of this committee.

SGC welcomed our Committee Chairpersons to a Kick-Off-Meeting to discuss upcoming Committee activities and topics in 2022. We decided on our way forward for all committees in terms of organisation of activities, upgrading of committee framework, responsibilities and new collaborations.

SGC would like to express our appreciation towards chairs of the groups and committee members, for their dedicated work and active support, namely Martin Hayes, Christoph Winnat, Martin Wehling, Bernhard, Dr. Hackl, Markus Waechter, Evelyn Stier, Dominique Herold, Reinhard Klemmer, Maximilian Englisch, Dr. Armin Wiesler, Eckart E. Jensen, Bernd Starke, Sam Chee Wah, Joachim Ihrcke, Jakob Lambsdorff, Friedhelm Best.

Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting our annual ‘Meet-the-Chamber’ event to honour our board and advisory council members, gold members and advertisers. We are very grateful for their support and presented the tokens of appreciation to our Gold Members and Advertisers.

We also welcomed Ms Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director of the Economic Development Board Singapore, to speak on the topic of “How the business landscape in Singapore is to change post-COVID, and areas where German companies can partner Singapore.”

Ms Poh highlighted 3 specific areas where Singapore and Germany can deepen their partnership: Advanced Manufacturing, Sustainability and Supply Chain Resilience. She also addressed talent, a crucial ingredient enabling this ambition on these three fronts.

To create a gender equal business world and to raise awareness on the topic we created a new platform for exchange and dialogue for members of the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

We would like to thank Ms Dominique Herold, Managing Director of the German Centre Singapore, for taking on her new role as Chairwoman of this committee to help inspiring women thrive in the business world.

Last week, we had the pleasure to host the first NRW-ASEAN Virtual Summit on “New Opportunities through Digitalization and Industry 4.0” with and on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and NRW.Global Business. We are still excited to had so many high-ranking speakers and an audience of around 150 participants with us.

The event included two amazing panel discussions on ‘Digital Trends and the Current Business Situation in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam’ and ‘Industry 4.0 Trends and the Current Business Situation in Indonesia and Malaysia’. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, NRW Minister for Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy presented NRW’s renewed commitment to Singapore and the ASEAN region and announced two more physical delegations to Singapore in April and August.

"The ASEAN region will be the fourth largest economic region worldwide by 2030. The area is a main promoter for digital trends and innovation and thereby offers huge potential for our local companies", said Minister Pinkwart. Jens Rübbert, President of the SGC, welcomed NRW's decision to come with physical delegations to Singapore and has ensured that the SGC will be happy to organise the programme together with the colleagues from NRW.

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of hosting Mr Choo Eng Chuan, Partner, International and Corporate Tax Services of Ernst & Young Solutions LLP, at a members’ exclusive 'Singapore Budget 2022' webinar. He presented and discussed the various initiatives arising from the Singapore Budget 2022 and their implications on businesses.

According to Mr Choo, “The three major takeaways from the 2022 Budget are the government’s clear signals towards more social spending, their conscience to keep the business environment healthy for long-term investments as well as a cleaner and greener Singapore.”

We would like to thank Mr Choo for taking the time to join us and sharing his insights. Thank you to our members who attended this event and and engaged in a dialogue with Mr Choo.

The SGC had the privilege of hosting Prof Dr Axel Stepken, Chairman, Board of Management, TÜV SÜD AG at Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. Dr Stepken shared his views on “Sustainability and its increasing importance for Companies”.

According to Prof Stepken, “Sustainability and digitalisation are the big issues for us and most companies. Internal sustainability is probably as important as external sustainability aspects. Most important is to start the process and to avoid greenwashing by independent validation and verification of sustainability claims.”

We would like to thank Prof Stepken for taking the time to join us and sharing his insights. Thank you to our members who attended this event and engaged with Dr Stepken to discuss current and future challenges as well as opportunities on this important topic.

Under the invitation of BBAM Aircraft Leasing and Management, SGC Members had the opportunity to visit the ST Engineering to have a first-hand experience and understanding the transformation from of a passenger aircraft into a freighter, starting a new lease of life with in the Lufthansa Cargo fleet.

The Airbus A321 Passenger-to-Freighter (P2F) is the next generation single-aisle that offers the largest usable cargo volume of its category and generation having containerised cargo capacity both on the upper and lower deck. Our members were given a brief overview of the process of the aircraft’s conversion, along with a Q&A session, and thereafter an insightful tour of the completed A321 Freighter.