Assessment Criteria in Granting Approval to Organise In-person Global Conferences Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

The following question stood in the name of Ms He Ting Ru –

11 To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what principles are adopted in assessing approval for an in-person global conference such as the World Economic Forum’s Special Annual Meeting 2021 amidst the pandemic; (b) what are the anticipated cost and revenues from the WEF Special Annual Meeting; and (c) what other factors are considered when deciding whether to hold these events here.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Question No 11, please.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr Alvin Tan) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Speaker, Sir, the Singapore Tourism Board launched the Safe Business Events framework in last year in July, which allows the resumption of in-person business events. Under the framework, event organisers must comply with strict public health requirements, including pre-departure and on-arrival testing, a rigorous testing regime, the mandatory wearing of masks, as well as all relevant safe management measures at the event. The Safe Business Events framework has been applied to over 29 business events since its launch, including the Singapore International Energy Week in October last year and TravelRevive in November last year.

Sir, the World Economic Forum's Special Annual Meeting in Singapore must also similarly comply with the requirements of the Safe Business Events framework. The Government is also studying what additional measures should be put in place to enhance the safety of the event, including measures to ensure safe interactions between the local community and event attendees.

As we are still working out the details and the logistical arrangements of the event, we are unable to share the costs and revenues at this point.

So, why are we doing this? After careful considerations, and in light of the current COVID-19 situation, the Forum had approached Singapore to discuss the possibility of holding its special annual meeting in Singapore and the Forum ultimately made the decision that Singapore was the best place to host the meeting.

We are confident that this meeting will have: one, a positive impact on Singapore's economy and international standing; two, it will have a direct benefit on the companies supporting the event, including local companies; three, it will send a strong signal of confidence in Singapore's ability to host major international events in a safe and innovative way. Hosting this Special Annual Meeting will also give Singapore an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to its programme and discussions.

We welcome this opportunity and will work with the Forum to strengthen the Meeting's focus on Asia, because of Asia's growing economic weight and strategic importance to the global economy.

I would like to assure the House that we will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation in Singapore and around the world, and put in place the necessary contingency measures to ensure the safe conduct of the event.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: I thank the Minister of State for his response. I have just one follow-up question. I am wondering what considerations were taken to have the event as an in-person event, rather than a purely digital one, given that many businesses and organisations, including a number of inter-parliamentary assemblies, have actually gone digital as a result of the pandemic.

Mr Alvin Tan: I thank the Member for his question. I will just give some context also. First of all, the Forum had ultimately made the decision that Singapore is best placed to host the meeting. On 7 December, MTI and WEF concurrently issued press releases respectively to announce Singapore would host the event in May. On 3 February, WEF proposed to postpone it to 17 to 20 August.

There are a few things. The first is that we are slowly opening up our events in hybrid manner. So, if you look at what we have done over the course of the year – about 29 different events including the Singapore International Energy Week, TravelRevive, SFF and SWITCH – we have now started to build muscles to ensure that we can safely and innovatively conduct events that are in hybrid format, and to ensure safe in-person meeting with all the relevant prevailing safe management measures in place.

We will continue to monitor the situation globally and ensure that, over the course of the next couple of months as we continue to have other events, we will look at different measures to further enhance and protect event attendees as well as our local community in the conduct of these events.