Singapore strengthened its collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA) with its inaugural participation in a meeting of top officials this week.

Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S. Iswaran attended the biennial IEA Ministerial Meeting held this week in Paris, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a statement yesterday.

Singapore became an association country of the IEA last year. It will be working with the IEA on a capacity-building programme on energy investments and a workshop on digitalisation and energy for Asean next year, said the MTI.

Mr Iswaran said at the meeting in Paris that as Singapore will assume the chairmanship of the 36th Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting next year, it will work with the IEA to explore deeper collaboration so as to foster a resilient and sustainable energy community in Asean.

At the plenary discussions, the minister spoke about the strategies that Singapore and the region can adopt to enhance energy security, and how the IEA could work with Asean to promote a transparent and flexible regional gas market.

Ann Williams