This was a very privileged opportunity provided by the Talent Development Program when we had the chance to visit the German Centre in Singapore as day 1 of this German Localisation program. The main purpose of this centre was to support German member companies in Singapore as well as to provide a market analysis for potential companies looking to set up in Singapore. During this visit, we got to learn more about the relations between Singapore and Germany.

Firstly, the German chamber engages conversations with companies about their interest to set up in Singapore as well as host events to gather different companies together to build connections between one another. For instance, there may be several companies from the same industry that will know each other and can help out each other when in need. They shared about the several reasons why German companies would approach them as well. For instance, the company may be a new company entering Singapore and have no existing clients or they may not be happy with their existing partners and would want to seek advice.

On top of sharing what they do, they also shared about the decision making framework German companies have when they decide why they want to set up a company in Singapore among many other countries in Asia. Firstly, it was our geopolitical and geographical location, Singapore is in the middle of the ASEAN region which makes it easy to do trades with countries all around. Secondly, Singapore is a small country. This means it will be faster for them to travel from the airport to companies when they need to travel overseas or it will also be faster when they need to travel from companies back to their homes if they decide to reside in Singapore. Thirdly, Singapore is known to be a safe country with low corruption. This makes it the top choice for companies considering to set up R&D (research & development) hubs in Singapore. There are many other reasons included such as political stability and similar mindset also mentioned.

Lastly, they also shared about how they were affected during the pandemic. With the pandemic comes different benefits and drawbacks. For the German centre, they definitely found the usage of zoom to be useful as they can also use it now when flight prices are too high to travel between Singapore and Germany. However, they also shared the usefulness of continuing meeting in person so as to know the organisation better when they look at their offices and employees.

Apart from what they do currently, they also gave us an insight into the possible future. They shared their plans on holding symposiums on topics of rising awareness such as cybersecurity, pharmaceutical science and environmental sustainability.

Through this tour, I learnt a lot about the connections between Germany and Singapore and how we assist each other every day. I found their job of getting to meet new people every day when they bring delegations to tours for instance to be rather fun and interesting!