Korea and Singapore Sign 'Digital Partnership Agreement'... Effective Early Next Year

Anduk Geun, Director General for Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (left), and Tan See Leng, Second Minister for Trade and Industry of Singapore.
[Photo by Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Lee Jun-hyung] The government is strengthening its digital alliance with Singapore. Using Singapore as a foothold, domestic companies are expected to gain momentum in entering the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that on the 21st, Ahn Deok-geun, the ministry's Director-General for Trade Negotiations, signed the "Korea-Singapore Digital Partnership Agreement (DPA)" with Tan See Leng, Singapore's Second Minister for Trade and Industry, at Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry. Previously, Korea declared the conclusion of the Korea-Singapore DPA in December last year and has been conducting legal reviews of the agreement text and domestic deliberation procedures until recently. The ministry plans to proceed with follow-up procedures with Singapore aiming for the Korea-Singapore DPA to take effect early next year.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy regards the signing of the Korea-Singapore DPA as a major achievement of the recently held ASEAN Summit. A ministry official explained, "The signing of the Korea-Singapore DPA is a concrete implementation of the 'Korea-ASEAN Trade Cooperation Strategy,' which aims to lead the regional economic and trade order and expand digital economy cooperation, starting from Singapore, the ASEAN digital hub country."

Once the Korea-Singapore DPA takes effect, domestic companies are expected to gain momentum in entering the ASEAN market. First, e-commerce platforms based in Singapore such as Shopee and Lazada have established networks throughout ASEAN, serving as a bridge connecting local consumers with domestic companies. Additionally, the DPA is expected to positively impact Korea's exports to ASEAN by reducing transaction costs through trade digitization and simplification of customs procedures, thereby activating trade participation by small and medium-sized enterprises.

On the same day, Director-General Ahn also signed the "Korea-Singapore Digital Economy Dialogue Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)" with Minister Tan See Leng. This organization will include not only government agencies but also stakeholders from the private sector such as companies and academia, playing a role in discovering and supporting bilateral cooperation projects. The ministry plans to hold the first Digital Economy Dialogue with Singapore early next year.

Meanwhile, the Korea-Singapore DPA agreement text and detailed explanatory materials will be available from 5 p.m. on the same day on the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's Free Trade Agreement (FTA) website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.