Habeck travels to Singapore to attend the 17th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business – focus on diversification and sustainability

Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck is visiting Singapore from 11 to 14 November 2022. He is being accompanied by Members of the German Bundestag and a business delegation. The focus of the visit is the Minister’s participation in the 17th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business (APK). Minister Habeck and Dr Roland Busch, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business, are co-hosts of the conference. The main topics of the conference are two issues that will play a key role in the coming years, namely diversification and sustainability.The Indo-Pacific region is a central area in this respect.

Federal Minister Habeck said: "The economic, demographic and political development of the Indo-Pacific region is highly dynamic and plays a major strategic role for Germany and Europe. In the course of many years, Germany has established close and trusting partnerships in the region. We want to intensify these partnerships. The aim is to provide new impetus to sustainable transformations, diversification and climate action and to put our partnerships with countries in the Indo-Pacific on a more strategic footing in order to jointly reduce unilateral dependencies by means of diversification. We need to position ourselves more broadly, spread risk, develop our own strengths and become more robust and thus also freer in terms of political action. These are clear goals of our external economic policy."

The first Asia-Pacific Conference (APK) took place in 1994. It is held every two years in differing countries in Asia. The APK is the largest networking event abroad for German business. 500 participants from more than 20 countries are expected to attend this year’s conference in Singapore.

The focus of this year’s Asia-Pacific Conference is on all aspects of diversification: reduction of strategic dependencies, multilateralism, open markets, sustainability, fair competition, strengthening the rules-based international order, and connectivity. Singapore is an ideal venue: the city-state has been tackling major challenges for many years, and as innovation centre and logistics hub it is a central gateway to the Indo-Pacific region for German companies.