Singapore Maintains Commitment To The World As A Trading Hub - Minister

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, May 18 (Bernama) -- Singapore has maintained its commitment to the world as a trading hub; maintaining a fair and open trading environment and allowing essential goods to flow through to the rest of the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our diversification strategy in manufacturing and long-standing cooperation with partners around the world also helps,” said the republic’s Trade and Industry Minister, Chan Chun Sing in a post on his Facebook page. Chan wrote the post in relation to the just-announced external trade figures by Enterprise Singapore (ESG), which showed that non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew by 9.7 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in April 2020. "That marks the third consecutive month that Singapore has seen an increase in exports," the minister said. Chan noted that NODX’s growth in April was fuelled by non-electronic sectors such as pharmaceuticals and food manufacturing. “We also saw significant growth in NODX to the United States, the European Union and Japan during this period,” he said. Earlier today, ESG, a government agency championing enterprise development, announced that NODX’s growth stood at 9.7 per cent y-o-y last month, easing from the 17.6 per cent expansion in March 2020. Overall, NODX to the top 10 markets grew in April 2020, though exports to China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand declined. Meanwhile, total trade decreased 12.8 per cent y-o-y during the month, as total exports declined 12.7 per cent y-o-y while total imports contracted 13.0 per cent y-oy. -- BERNAMA