Singapore actively supports Ukraine in its fight against the russian aggression by providing humanitarian aid and imposing sanctions against Russia. The Republic of Singapore has joined international sanctions against russia over its invasion of Ukraine by prohibiting transactions with Russian banks such as VTB, VEB.RF, Promsvyazbank and rossiia. The restrictions also include a ban on transactions and financial services that facilitate the collection of funds for the benefit of the russian government, the Bank of russia and entities related to them. In addition, Singapore imposed a ban on exports of military goods, electronics and computers to russia.
The Republic of Singapore has provided three tranches of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, including medical and rescue services. The Government of Singapore and the Singapore Red Cross have repeatedly provided humanitarian assistance to Ukraine to meet the needs of war-affected people. Since 2022, the country has been among the leading sponsors and benefactors of the National Children’s Specialised Hospital Okhmatdyt and the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf. As of July 2024, the total amount of provided assistance amounted to more than $11.5 million.
The Asian country also participates in international forums where the situation in Ukraine is discussed, demonstrating solidarity and support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. From 2 to 4 June 2023, Singapore hosted one of the key defence summits in Asia, the Shangri-La Dialogue. The main goal of the summit participants from Ukraine and Europe was to ensure regional support for Ukraine in the face of the russian invasion and to emphasise Europe’s overall commitment to the Asian region.
On November 6, the Embassy of Ukraine in Singapore in cooperation with SoftServe held a thematic event at the Singapore Fintech Festival-2024 aimed at increasing the presence of Ukrainian companies’ services in the Singapore financial market and developing cooperation in the field of fintech and artificial intelligence. The event presented Ukraine’s IT/AI eco-system and plans for the development of the industry until 2030. Participants from international and Singaporean companies networked with local partners who cooperate with Ukrainian companies or represent their interests in the Southeast Asian market.
Singapore is the key partner of Ukraine in the Southeast Asia. As a result of cooperation between two countries over the past 5 years, the following markets have been opened for Ukrainian producers of food products of animal origin: poultry and poultry products, halal poultry, ready-to-cook poultry and pork products, foie gras, table eggs, pet food.
Despite the geographical distance, trade between Ukraine and Singapore has been steadily increasing in the pre-war period, reaching a peak of $286 million in 2019 ($56 million in 2015). The COVID-19 pandemic and full-scale russian aggression against Ukraine have had a negative impact on bilateral trade, slightly changing the structure of Ukrainian exports. However, the growth of Ukrainian exports in 2023 (+103.3%) was driven by such goods as table eggs, barley and wheat, sunflower and rapeseed oils, poultry meat.
Investments in Ukraine by Singapore amount to $279 million, which continue to operate during the war period.
Singapore also remains an important trade partner of Dnipropetrovsk region. The level of partnership relations is evidenced by the bilateral analysis of external activities.
Singaporean companies buy milk and dairy products, ferrous metal products, grain crops, optical and photographic instruments and apparatus, vegetables, etc. The volume of goods exported from Dnipropetrovsk region amounted to $1.23 million and increased by 3.3 times compared to the previous year.
9 enterprises in Dnipropetrovsk region exported their products to the Singapore market, including metallurgical, agricultural, food and processing companies.
TOP 4 enterprises in terms of the volume of exported products are the following:
In turn, 29 importers in the region purchased mostly Singaporean goods, namely pharmaceutical products, electrical machinery, optical, photographic and other devices. Imports of goods from Singapore to Dnipropetrovsk region increased 5-fold to $511 thousand.
TOP-5 importers by volume of imported products are the following:
Imports were mainly carried out by enterprises of the processing industry and trade.
Source: information for the article was taken from open online sources
