The event took place within the scope of ReFocus Austria, a joint initiative of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, the Austrian National Tourist Board and representatives of further Federal Ministries.
The event was hosted and opened by David Bachmann, the Austrian Commercial Counsellor to Singapore, who highlighted the strong recovery Austrian exports to Singapore have undergone in 2021. He also presented the key findings of the first sentiment survey among Austrian subsidiaries in Singapore as well as the wider region.
Next, H.E. Peter Guschelbauer, the Austrian ambassador to Singapore, discussed Austria and the EU’s political agenda in Singapore, stressing the continuing good relations between the two countries and the progress made in joint efforts to find fight the pandemic, most recently in Singapore’s decision to join the EUDCC, granting equivalency to Singaporean vaccination certificates to those issued in the EU and vice versa.
Ambassador Guschelbauer was followed by Mr. Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, Executive Director of the Bioinformatics Institute at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), who showcased critical role A*STAR plays in helping scientists worldwide collaborate in order to quickly identify and understand new mutations of the COVID-19 virus. He also highlighted the tendency of mutations to be either infectious or deadly, but usually not both and the limited effectiveness of travel restrictions in containing highly contagious mutations.
This was followed by a presentation from Ms. Sabrina Winter, Regional Director of Sales at Lufthansa Group in Singapore, who outlined the impact unharmonised border measures, fear of new COVID-19 variants and vaccine hesitancy hampering the recovery of the aviation industry. Nonetheless, Ms. Winter stressed not only the continuing efforts Lufthansa Group continues to make in advocating with governments to reopen borders safely, but also the measures the Group is taking to improve its product offering as well as customer confidence in flying.
Last, Mr. Toh Wei Xuan, Senior Manager of the Europe Desk at the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), presented the role the EDB plays in growing and developing the Singapore economy in a sustainable way and introduced the different ways the EDB supports foreign companies in Singapore.
The conference was followed by a seated dinner before wrapping up.
