Health Requirements and Contingency Plans for Singapore Hosting World Economic Forum in 2021

Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Trade and Industry in hosting the World Economic Forum's Special Annual Meeting in May 2021 (a) how will the health requirements be implemented for participants attending the forum; (b) to what extent will Singaporean talents be involved in the executive component of organising the event; and (c) what will be the contingency plans should the situation worsen requiring the closure of borders.

Mr Speaker, the health and safety of the attendees of the World Economic Forum’s Special Annual Meeting in Singapore this coming May, as well as the local community, are of utmost importance. Attendees will adhere to prevailing public health requirements and safe management measures. These include a rigorous testing regime, including pre-departure and on-arrival testing, as well as strict safe management measures during the Meeting itself. To minimise the risk of seeding local transmissions, we will also put in place measures to manage the interactions between the local community and the event attendees. The specific public health requirements and contingency plans are currently being worked out and will take into consideration the latest COVID-19 situations here in Singapore and also globally. The health requirements developed for this event could also serve as an important reference for subsequent events that are going to be held in Singapore.

The WEF’s intent is for the Special Annual Meeting to have a greater focus on Asia, given Asia’s growing importance and economic weight in the global economy. So, we are looking forward to the opportunity for Singapore to contribute to the programme and discussions at the Meeting. In addition, we have also been introducing interested local companies and local service providers to the WEF and their contracted event organiser, PublicisLive, to explore potential partnerships between our local companies and service providers as well as PublicistLive and the event organiser. It will be also be a good chance for us to showcase how Singapore has made it possible through our efforts to maintain robust health protocols while sustaining important economic and business activity amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order for us to host the WEF's Special Annual Meeting successfully in Singapore, we will not let our guard down but instead continue to do our best to minimise the number of COVID-19 infections in Singapore.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I note that the healthcare requirement plans are currently being worked out. But are there plans to require the majority of the Singapore public to be vaccinated before the event?

I thank the Member for his supplementary questions. We all know that the availability and the roll-out of vaccines globally and, in fact, in Singapore are still being worked out, as the Co-Chairs of MTF had described yesterday. So, we will continue to evaluate the situation with these roll-out programmes locally as well as globally and apply the prevailing conditions to all incoming travellers to Singapore. And I have said earlier that we will make special plans also to ensure that event attendees as well as the local population are also being segregated as well for the safe conduct of the event.