 Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, it's an honor and privilege to have with us His Excellency Prime Minister Lee Shen Lung of Singapore for the closing special address of the Davos Agenda. Prime Minister, a warm welcome to you from Geneva. I recall our conversation in the physical Davos just under a year ago. It seems like a decade, where we spoke about Singapore's unique development path and also your vision for the country's place in the global economy. As we traditionally gather in Davos at the start of each new year, we always try to look ahead with courage and optimism to shape a better world for the rest of the year. And this year, that's more needed than ever. After months of uncertainty and hardship that have thrown millions of lives, of course, we are slowly starting to find our way out of this pandemic. The global economy is also projected to pick up significant pace this year, provided that we will not see really, really serious second or third waves of the pandemic. And Prime Minister, Singapore's handling of the pandemic, I know its rapid vaccine rollout has enabled your government to more actively focus on building back from this crisis. So, compliments for that. With a close eye on the rapidly evolving global public health context, Singapore is now preparing to host the first major global physical meeting this year, the World Economic Forum's special annual meeting in May. Prime Minister, it is a privilege to have you with us here today. Again, and deliver your message to the world. Welcome and the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Brande. I'm very honoured to speak at this closing address, and I'd like to congratulate Professor Schwab, yourself, and the whole WEF team for putting together a successful programme. Thank you. It's been a year since we were all physically gathered in Davos for the 50th annual meeting of the WEF. At that time, we were just starting to hear about this new virus, and trying to understand what was happening. None of us anticipated how quickly a full-scale pandemic would blow up, and dramatically change our world. The disruption to lives and livelihoods has been massive and unprecedented. The virus is still raging in many countries, in the developed world in the US and Europe, and also in the developing world in Africa, South America, and South Asia. Thankfully, with vaccines becoming available, there's some light at the end of the tunnel. It is now critical that vaccines are rolled out quickly across the world. But even with vaccines, the pandemic is far from being quelled. The new variants discovered in the UK and South Africa and Brazil are worrying, and further mutations will surely emerge. Until a large part of the world's population is vaccinated, we still need strong public health measures everywhere to suppress the spread of the virus and keep populations safe. What will the post-COVID-19 world look like? Will countries emerge more resolved to build a more resilient but still globalised world? Or are we headed towards a less integrated global economy, a less stable international order? The answer depends on the decisions that countries take now. Even before COVID-19, globalization was already under pressure. Confidence in multilateral institutions and rules and norms was eroding. Populist politics, nativism, nationalism, protectionism were on the rise. Countries' initial reactions to the pandemic seemed to herald globalization's demise. Borders were closed, supply chains were badly disrupted. Each country scrambled to secure its own supplies of essential goods, especially medicines, face masks and ventilators. It was each man for himself. But as the situation unfolded, we were forcefully reminded that our fates were intertwined and that we had to work together, and so we did in many areas. We restored supply chains, we repatriated each other's citizens stuck overseas, we shared tests and medical supplies, we supported vaccine multilateralism initiatives like the COVAX so that all countries, especially the least developed ones, would have access to vaccines. And as we gradually rebuilt confidence in one another, we opened up controlled corridors for travel and train between countries. Crucially, international scientific cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 continued. Doctors and scientists shared information about the disease and the virus, studying them, developing treatments, and testing vaccines. This enabled us to improve patient care and to produce effective vaccines in record time, some using new technologies. Such international cooperation and multilateral efforts remain essential to tackle the global pandemic coherently. With border closures and lockdowns, economies have all taken a deep plunge. The livelihoods of millions came under enormous stress. Only unprecedented levels of emergency spending and budgetary stimulus have kept us afloat, providing a lifeline to companies, workers, and families. Central banks have played their part to prevent financial systems and global capital markets from seizing up, unlike in previous crisis. These extraordinary measures cannot be sustained indefinitely. In fact, spending packages are already tapering off. But hopefully, as vaccination becomes more widespread and we make headway suppressing the virus, COVID-19 restrictions can be progressively eased, and economies will rebound. The World Bank and IMF forecast global growth to recover this year. It will not restore output to pre-COVID-19 levels, but it is something still to be thankful for. Now we are entering a new phase. The pandemic has exposed businesses and jobs which are not going to remain viable. They have to be let go to allow new growth and better jobs to be created in their place. Hard decisions have to be made, and this will exacerbate existing stresses. Governments will come under more pressure to adopt protectionist and nativist positions. To resume growth, we must look beyond returning to the status quo, empty. We must look ahead. Within countries, governments and businesses must collaborate to tap new markets and develop novel technologies. Externally, countries need to strengthen their framework for international cooperation. As an immediate task, countries should collaborate to develop a standardized, robust system to verify the authenticity of tests and vaccinations. This is essential to reopen borders and resume international travel. In the longer term, countries should work together to update and strengthen international institutions like the WTO, and create new rules to govern and foster novel forms of economic activity. For example, to sustain the growth of the digital economy and facilitate safe, secure, and efficient cross-border e-payments and data flows, we have to develop new e-trade regulations. Singapore has concluded digital economy agreements with like-minded countries like Australia, Chile, and New Zealand. We hope that this is only the beginning. We encourage all countries to come together to shape and grow the digital economy globally. The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or the RCEP last year by 15 countries in Asia was also a major collective commitment to trade and economic integration amidst the pandemic. The RCEP will broaden trade, open up markets in East and Southeast Asia and Australasia, and hopefully prevent the push for resilience and self-reliance from going too far. While dealing with the aftermath of COVID-19, we must not lose sight of other long-term challenges that affect all of us. One major problem is climate change. 2020 was the world's hottest year on record. Extreme weather events have become much more frequent. Last year, carbon emissions went down, but only because of COVID-19. Otherwise, the trend has been inexorably upwards. Climate change is clearly accelerating dangerously, and it is late in the day. But if countries act now and in constant, humankind can still hope to avert a catastrophe. We all know what we need to do. Within individual countries, to muster support for policies and measures that will slow the changes and limit global warming. Collectively, to set higher common standards and hold one another to our mutual commitments, whether it is tightening emission rules, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, or promoting renewable energy. We can take some comfort that countries are now taking climate change more seriously. The US has rejoined the Paris Agreement. China has announced a zero emissions target by 2060. But much more still needs to be done, going beyond our Paris commitments. Otherwise, we risk grave consequences in the not too distant future, even within our own lifetimes. To tackle these challenges, COVID-19, economic recovery, and climate change, global cooperation is essential. But getting countries to work together is not simply a matter of nurturing and showing goodwill. The international order must be underpinned by stable, great power relations. Big countries naturally jostle and compete with one another for influence and power. But they also need to work with one another through established and accepted rules and norms on issues which affect us all, be it pandemics, economic cooperation, or climate change. Recent years have witnessed growing friction and distrust rather than cooperation and confidence building among major powers. The most worrying trend is in US-China relations. This remains the most important bilateral relationship for the world in the years ahead. Over the last four years, tensions between the US and China have intensified sharply. Both powers have adopted more assertive and uncompromising postures. The US now sees China as a strategic rival and challenger to its preeminent position. And China is vigorously asserting what it considers its rightful place in the world. On both sides, domestic pressures to harden their external positions are considerable and moderate voices have been marginalised. Given the enormous stakes, difficult as it will be, it cannot possibly be too late for the US and China to reset the tone of their interactions and avert a clash between them, which will become a generational twilight struggle. The new US administration is an opportunity to steer the relationship towards safer waters. Amid President Biden's many urgent preoccupations, the US-China relationship should become a key strategic priority. To build a stable international order, regular constructive dialogue is critical. I am thus happy to see many distinguished participants taking part in the Davos Agenda Week. The World Economic Forum plays an important role, promoting dialogue, bringing together leaders in government, industry, and civil society. It is a forum where leaders from countries large and small alike can speak and be heard. And this is why, when Professor Schwab asked me whether Singapore would host a special annual meeting of the WEF, I agreed. It was not a decision lightly taken, but we are happy to make a modest contribution to the global discussion as the host country. We will work with the WEF to ensure the health and safety of all. I welcome all of you to Singapore in May so that we can take these discussions forward and forge a new path ahead together. Thank you. Thank you so much, Prime Minister. Also, thank you for being willing to host a special annual meeting in May. And as you also underlined the thinking behind the World Economic Forum for 50 years, also mentioned by Professor Schwab in his dialogue with you, is dialogue. It is to get the different key players together in the same room and try to find solutions. And as you also underlined so rightly, Mr Prime Minister, in your speech, the most pressing issues that we are faced with don't know any borders. COVID doesn't stop with borders. COVID anywhere is COVID everywhere. And also, as you emphasize climate change, CO2 doesn't stop on the border either of Singapore or Switzerland. It's a global problem that has to be dealt with in a global way. So coming back to the meeting in Singapore in May. For 50 years, we had the annual meeting for 49 times in Davos and one time in New York in solidarity after 9-11. And now this is Asia Century. We'll come to Singapore. What will your message be to the leaders that are now contemplating on coming to Singapore in May? We all face different situations, although we all share certain common challenges. I think we have to respond to our domestic issues in our own ways. But it is necessary for all of us to put a certain broader view ahead of us and to work together to tackle these common problems. Because otherwise, if it's a scramble of each country for itself, I think we're all going to come into serious trouble. And it's so for pandemics, it's so for climate change, it's so for economic recovery, it's so for a stable global security order. And I think that calls for courage, vision, and also the willingness to take a political stand and to persuade our own peoples that this is the way we are putting our country's interests ahead. And working to advance your interests together with other people in the world, because if we didn't do that, we'd all be in difficulty. It's very difficult. We all know what is the right thing to do. We all say what is the right thing to do. But we all come under pressure. In the early days of the pandemic, there was a very ferocious scramble for PPE, for equipment. And countries intervene to hijack, or perhaps requisition is the polite word, supplies which were destined and contracted and committed to other destinations. Now, I think we may see the same with vaccines, because the supplies are not coming on stream fast enough. In Europe, it's a very serious problem. I don't underestimate the political problem. But unless we can overcome those and work together as one country, you can keep one continent safe even. But if the virus is brewing and mutating and developing in other continents, sooner or later it's going to reach your shores by air, land, or sea. Prime Minister, traditional Singapore has had very close ties to the US, but also worked very well with China. And Singapore is, many ways, one of the largest FDI investors in China. And you said that US, China, the G2, is the most important bilateral cooperation or bilateral relationship in the world. And we need to bring it into safer waters, I think with the words. And where, and maybe a Singapore meeting, the special annual meeting in May, could be a place where you could see the new Biden administration and China meet. But what would be the concessions each of them have to give? Because if you have a full decoupling of the two largest economy in the world, I guess it will also have serious impact on economic growth and prosperity in the years to come. And you will come into a situation where smaller countries are between the rock and the hard place. We are in a position now where we have grown incrementally over three and a half, four decades since the beginning of the Chinese liberalisation and opening up, reform and opening up by Teng Xiaoping in 1978. And gradually China has liberalised its economy, has developed, has grown, has become more prominent in the world, and has grown its influence as well, and its interlinkages with other countries. And everybody has benefited from that, the Chinese people, but also all its trading partners, Europe, America, and Asia. But nevertheless, we are now at a situation where the strategic landscape has changed so much because of the emergence of China, that what used to work is no longer politically wearable in many countries. And adjustments have to be made. Concessions made to China when it was small, when it was backward, and which remain, and technically China is still a developing country, have to be reconsidered and recalibrated. At the same time, China's influence in the world has grown so much that it has to take on a greater responsibility for providing global public goods. And whether it is for security, whether it is for trade, opening markets, whether it is for climate change, CO2 emissions. So I think China has to recalibrate its position in order that its influence in the world is not only there because of its own power and energy, but also there because of legitimacy and acceptance by other countries, that this is something which is benefiting other countries and which is not at the expense of other countries. On the part of the US, it is a very difficult adjustment because the US, after the Soviet Union collapsed, was the world's single hyper power. And now China is growing. It is not as powerful as the US. The GDP may be PPP terms about the same, maybe even bigger, but in terms of technology, in terms of sophistication, in terms of military might, nothing like America. Nevertheless, it is a significant other party on the international landscape and potentially a challenger. And the Americans are seeing it as a challenger, almost as a threat. I think if you see China as a threat, that is going to be a very big problem because then you are creating a threat and the struggle will continue for a long time. China is not going to collapse the way the Soviet Union did. So to see China as an issue where you have to develop a constructive relationship, you will compete, you will disagree even very strongly, maybe on human rights issues. But you also have other areas where you do have to work together because if you cannot work together, not only can you not solve the problems, but it becomes all round an adversarial relationship. You are in for a twilight struggle. It will not end, you will not have a quick win, and you are not going to disappear either. So you are in for a bad time, for a long time, and so is many other countries. And to understand that and internalize that and make that an acceptable policy stance to persuade the other side is one challenge. To persuade your own people, the population, Congress, the intelligentsia, I think that takes leadership of a very high order. Thank you Prime Minister. And in your speech, you also underlined what we are seeing of nationalism, protectionism, and populism. And this takes leadership to then show the course forward. You also said Prime Minister that we shouldn't return to kind of status co-anta after the crisis. And I guess the COVID crisis also have put challenges on Singapore, even if you're so far weathered this well, and also with the pandemic. How much has your strategy for your country and also the region changed? Or is it just re-emphasized or underlined the strategy you had before? Well, some of it is re-emphasized, because what we have found crucial in this crisis is that there is trust between the government and the people, that the people can work together, that we prepare ahead for what is to come before the dangers are upon us. And that's what's helped, I think, many Asian countries to deal with COVID-19, not just Singapore. And I think we have to keep that. But what has changed in this new world is that our social compact will be under greater stress because of inequality, because of job uncertainty, because of much more rapid technological changes, and structural changes in the world economy. Because I think the tourism industry, maybe even the aviation industry, will not go back to where it was for quite a long time to come. And we have to respond to that, to keep our economy growing, because that's the basis of our prosperity and our wherewithal to solve problems. And to strengthen our social compact and deal with these issues of inequality, of uncertainty, of anxiety which people have, in order that people have the confidence, the assurance to learn new skills, to take care of themselves, to open new frontiers. And we are trying very hard to do that. It's not easy to do. All countries are striving to do that. We have a life-long learning program. We call it Skills Future. We're putting very heavy resources in it, so that we retrain our workers and our population, not just at the beginning of their life, but throughout their working lives, and well into middle age and adulthood, in order that they can be productive and they can look forward to a better future. We are trying to prepare the economy for the future. Manufacturing is a significant segment of our economy. We want to keep it, but it will have to be in a different form. WEF talks about, Mr Schwab talks about industry 4.0. We have a manufacturing 2030 plan in order to develop the sorts of industries, manufacturing industries, where we will have the expertise and a competitive advantage, because it takes technology, it takes know-how, it has intellectual property, you need skilled people, you need to be flexible and to be able to adjust your strategies and outputs in your markets constantly. And these are things which you can do, provided you have a high-quality population. And we also have to take advantage of what people see in Singapore as a hub, trusted, reliable, well-connected, able to function in this new world, in order to keep on developing our ties with Southeast Asia, to prosper with our neighbours, with China, with Australasia or India, to prosper with the whole region. And therefore, that you are not just making a living, selling meals and cakes to one another or giving one another services, but servicing the wider world and therefore earning a place for ourselves in a different future. Well, thank you. And thank you also for underlining the importance of the new technologies. I guess this cannot be over-stated, the change that the Fort Industrial Revolution represents with artificial intelligence, internet of things, and not at least the big data. Data is the new oxygen in the economy. And you're a very competitive economy in Singapore, but I know that you also studied a lot of economic history and that the country does well today. Doesn't mean it needs to do well in two, three decades. Every day is a fight for also being competitive. And behind also the competition between the G2, I think it's also a lot about who's going to be on top of these new technologies. And the World Economic Forum has no centres all over the world related to the Fort Industrial Revolution. And how do you see the technologies being at the centre of the change in the years to come? And how can we also make sure that this isn't the new thing that represents new inequalities in the world? Because 3.6 billion people, more than half of the global population, don't even have access to the internet. That's a big paradox. Well, I think technology has to be part of the solution. If we see it as a threat, then we are condemning ourselves to be being frozen where we are today. You will not move ahead, but others will move ahead. So we have to master the technology at the same time. We must make sure that there's inclusive access to it. Within Singapore, we pay attention to that because our older folk are not so fast style with technology. So if you want to register online or using a hand phone, a smartphone, for the old folks, they may not do that. We run courses to teach them how to do that, that helps. But we also have places where they can come where there will be young people who will help them to do that. And make sure that they don't feel left out because we must take care of them, but we can't stop the whole country in order to make sure that everybody knows how to do it by hand. And I think globally, what you have to do is to have enough access, have mechanism which should enable the poorer countries also to have access. I think for internet, there are many schemes to provide affordable access, some using balloons, some using satellites to have broadband access to wide swathes of the developing world. When it comes to vaccines, we have the COVAX initiative to make sure that the lower income countries get what they need. And it's really not just in their own interest, but in everybody else's interest too. And we have to work together at this in order that they will also be able to move ahead. Because if they can't move ahead, then they may walk with their feet. And I mean, one of the problems with the migration crisis which we have been seeing is because of these inequalities between countries. Thank you so much, Prime Minister. You know, it's always one of the highlights in Davos to listen to your speech and also listen to your messages is always so insightful. And thank you also for then hosting us in a special annual meeting in May. We're really looking forward to seeing you there, Mr Prime Minister. Thank you so much.