Making up for lost years

Hopeful visit: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (right) and Anwar shaking hands before their joint press conference in Berlin on March 11. — Reuters

CONSIDER this: Singapore and Vietnam launched separate free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the European Union (EU) in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Singapore’s FTA with the EU entered into force 10 years later, after negotiations concluded. It is the first FTA between the EU and an Asean country.

Singapore is the EU’s largest trade and investment partner in Asean, accounting for slightly under one-third of EU-Asean trade in goods and services, and roughly two-thirds of investments between the two regions.