Africa Singapore Business Forum slated for Aug 23-27

The 2021 Africa Singapore Business Forum (ASBF) which seeks to further deepen trade between Singapore and Africa has been scheduled for August 23-27.

The forum which would be held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic would be done under the theme “Leapfrogging the World: Innovation and Sustainability in Africa”.

The event is expected to bring together Singaporean companies doing business in Africa.

It is also expected to provide a platform to encourage and recognise bilateral agreements and projects, raise awareness of Africa’s growth opportunities, and promote Singapore as a hub for Asia-Africa trade and investment.

Key speakers at the forum include Singapore’s Senior Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and President of AfDB Akinwumi Adesina.

Read; Ghana to learn from Singapore’s experience

Three panels

The forum will also have three panel discussions, with the first panel focusing on urban development.

This would look at how Africa will be urbanising in the next decade. It will explore the future of urbanisation in key African markets and the direction urbanisation is heading towards on the continent; and spotlight key developments in smart city implementation and sustainable urban solutions in Africa.

The panel will further discuss how green financing is gaining grounds in Africa and where it has shown results in driving sustainable outcomes, and explore key infrastructure projects in Africa that have increased focus on sustainability and smart city.

The second panel, which is under the theme ‘Manufacturing in Africa: Deepening Value-capture in the Continent’, will also explore how the pandemic is shifting global supply chains and encouraging near-sourcing in Africa, and discuss the trend of onshoring baseline manufacturing activities and how will that impact industries across Africa.

It will further spotlight the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area and how it will shift the modality of traditional FDIs in manufacturing, and understand how manufacturers and technology providers can leverage these trends and enable the development of a more advanced manufacturing base on the continent.

The third panel themed ‘Digital Africa: The Next Tech Frontier’ also seeks to explore new trends for various tech verticals in Africa such as mobile wallets, e-commerce, fintech, agri-tech, logistics and mobility, offgrid-energy and health technology.

It will address how these new tech innovations and solutions are empowering the continent; enhance understanding of how the financial sector, in particular, is rapidly adopting fintech solutions that empowers financial institutions and individuals across Africa (e.g. micro-loans); and discuss how to encourage collaboration between Africa and Asia’s tech ecosystems and to play a key role in addressing key challenges on both continents.

Championing enterprise development

Speaking at the virtual launch of the event, Jean Ng, Regional Director, West & Central Africa Enterprise Singapore, the government agency championing enterprise development, said the forum would present a great opportunity for the continent to learn from innovative measures Singapore has taken to revive its economy from the pandemic.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), from 2015 to 2019 Singapore’s investments into Africa rose from US$17 billion to US$20 billion.