The United States presidential election result may still be in doubt, but whoever emerges victorious will need to unite the country to adapt to the challenges of globalisation and digitalisation, or risk a backlash so severe it could damage the global economic system, Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing warned yesterday.

Without such a shift, "there will be a pushback against globalisation and the world economic system may fracture or fragment because of that," Mr Chan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Ms Haslinda Amin.

"One of the biggest challenges for the US going forward is how can it maintain its leadership in the world by mobilising like-minded partners to work together to uphold and update the global economic and security order," he said.

Mr Chan's comments came as Democratic candidate Joe Biden closed in on the 270 Electoral College votes needed for the presidency and incumbent Donald Trump filed legal challenges to stop ongoing vote-counting in several states.

The results show the US electorate is "almost split down the middle", Mr Chan said later yesterday in a round table with Bloomberg.

Aside from the US vote, he said Singapore is being impacted by the resurgence of Covid-19 infections overseas, which has triggered successive lockdowns with a ripple effect on the city's trade-reliant economy.

He warned that Singapore's economic recovery would be "gradual and uneven", echoing an assessment last week from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The country's overall unemployment rate climbed in the third quarter to its highest level since 2004.

While China's resurgence from the initial virus outbreak offers some support to the global economy, "China alone will not be able to do miracles for the world", he said.

He added that China will need to rebalance its own economy alongside other countries and grapple with a host of challenges, such as managing uneven development across the country, securing supply lines and focusing on its resilience, and managing an ageing and diverse population.

Increasingly, businesses are accepting that some things have changed structurally since the pandemic, he said. About half of Singapore businesses Mr Chan has spoken with now agree there will not be a return to the "pre-Covid-19 world", versus about 20 per cent three months ago, he said.

"Many companies are rethinking their entire global production footprint", and even companies that are doing well, as in the semiconductor industry, are adjusting, Mr Chan added.

In the long-to-medium term, such adjustments post-Covid-19 are "a net plus for Singapore, for a country without natural resources", he said, allowing it to "transcend our geographical size and geographical location".

"The question is really how connected we are with the rest of the world," he said.

Mr Chan also expects "good news" in about 10 days on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the 15-nation trade pact that is expected to be signed at an upcoming meeting of Asean leaders.

Singapore's first priority is to reopen its economy "safely and sustainably", then to re-establish connectivity with other countries, Mr Chan noted.

BLOOMBERG