IPEF Investor Forum to discuss over 60 clean energy project proposals: DPM Gan
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DPM Gan Kim Yong said the proposals were shortlisted from more than 300 applications.
ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
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SINGAPORE – A new investor forum focused on the sustainable economy will discuss more than 60 proposals from project developers and entrepreneurs, said Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong.
The proposals are for projects related to renewable energy infrastructure, battery recycling, sustainable agriculture, and carbon capture, utilisation and storage, among other clean energy projects.
Mr Gan, who is also Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry, said at a welcome dinner for the inaugural Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Clean Economy Investor Forum that the proposals were shortlisted from more than 300 applications.
“I am encouraged by the strong industry interest, and the quality and diversity of the proposals,” he said at the dinner, which was held on June 5, a day before the forum begins.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam told the event that to be able to invest in renewable energies, and everything else to do with the clean economy, is the biggest investment growth and job creation opportunity the world has seen in a long time.
“So we’ve got to bring every source of investment capital together,” he said. “But remember, it’s not a burden. It’s not about forcing someone else to pay. It’s about investing for a return that we are all going to benefit from.”
President Tharman added that energy demand is going to grow very significantly in South-east Asia in the coming years, noting: “So we’re going to have to meet the needs of growing economies, but in a way that involves increasingly the use of cleaner energies.”
The IPEF – an alliance of 14 Indo-Pacific countries
Led by the US, the other IPEF members are Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. They represent 40 per cent of global GDP and 28 per cent of global goods and services trade.
The IPEF is built on four pillars – trade, supply chains, the clean economy and the fair economy.
The 14 partners have discussed how to scope out each of the four pillars and have substantially concluded negotiations on agreements on supply chains, the fair economy and the clean economy.
The Clean Economy Investor Forum aims to bring together the region’s top investors, philanthropies, financial institutions, innovative companies and entrepreneurs to mobilise investments into sustainable infrastructure, climate technology and renewable energy projects.
More than 160 investors are expected to participate in the one-day event.
Trade ministers from IPEF countries will also be present at the forum, which will examine ways to promote conducive business environments for scaling up clean technology and infrastructure investments in the region.
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo will be in Singapore from June 3 to June 6 to attend the forum and participate in an IPEF ministerial meeting that will take stock of the progress made under the three concluded agreements and outline a series of next steps.
Ms Raimondo is also leading a delegation of 22 American companies to the forum to accelerate sustainable infrastructure and climate technology investments in the region.
DPM Gan said the gathering is an example of how the IPEF can advance the collective commitment of the 14 members to tackle climate change.
“Climate change is an existential crisis, and the transition to net-zero will be very difficult and expensive,” he said, adding that to effectively decarbonise, all stakeholders – governments, businesses and banks – will have to come together and partner with each other.
