Browsing: Taiwan Singapore relations

This “deliberate absence” was no accident. Rather, it reflects a consistent policy choice by Singapore. For a country with an ethnic Chinese majority but a deeply diverse society, Singapore has always drawn a strict line between personal ties of blood and culture, and national political loyalty and policy orientation. Political leaders’ distance from their ancestral hometowns is an important symbol: internally, it strengthens national cohesion; externally, it demonstrates independence.

TUNG Chen-Yuan, PhD, Taiwan’s Representative to Singapore According to projections by the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), Japan’s semiconductor market…

The critical battleground for scam prevention is money flow. Singapore has adopted robotic process automation (RPA) to drive the “Automation of Scam-fighting Tactics & Reaching Out” initiative, building real-time coordination between police and banks and replacing the previously passive sequence of “report first, freeze later.”

Last year, Taiwan became Singapore’s largest trading partner and source of imports for the first time. Approximately 85% of Taiwan’s exports to Singapore were semiconductor-related products, while about 80% of Singapore’s exports to Taiwan fell into the same category. In the first two months of 2025, Taiwan’s exports to Singapore grew by 56%, while Singapore’s semiconductor industry expanded by nearly 52%, demonstrating strong industrial linkage and mutual prosperity.

Singapore has become an increasingly important source of Taiwan’s overall trade surplus. In 2022, Taiwan’s surplus with Singapore accounted for more than 33% of Taiwan’s total trade surplus, and it remained close to 30% in 2024. Although the share was 17.5% in 2025, it rose again to 21.9% in January–February 2026, meaning that more than one-fifth of Taiwan’s total trade surplus now comes from Singapore.

Data from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) indicate that Singapore produces about 10% of the world’s semiconductors and manufactures roughly 20% of global semiconductor equipment.

Stronger penalties and institutional innovation can raise costs and slow damage. But the long-term solution lies in deeper cross-border cooperation, continued advancement in financial technology, and enhanced digital literacy among the public.

According to the latest statistics, from the law’s implementation through early February 2026, police issued 12 Restriction Orders to banks, buying critical intervention time for affected individuals. The proportion of victims who “voluntarily transferred funds to scammers” declined slightly from 82.4% in 2024 to 81.8% in 2025, suggesting that the long-term effectiveness of “protective intervention” warrants continued observation.

Strategically, Singapore has chosen a pragmatic and clear-eyed path. The Prime Minister acknowledged that Singapore lacks the scale to compete with major powers such as the United States and China in developing foundational AI models. Instead, its comparative advantage lies in deploying AI “effectively, responsibly, and swiftly.” This declaration signals that Singapore has no intention of entering an arms race in model development. Rather, it aims to position itself as a global hub and testing ground for AI solutions. Instead of pursuing scale for its own sake, the country seeks to excel in application efficiency and systems integration.

By Dr. TUNG Chen-Yuan, Taiwan’s Representative to Singapore – AI image for illustrative purposes only. In Singapore, health is no longer…