Singapore, Europe to deepen tech cooperation for chips, AI

Europe wants more cooperation with Singapore on all things digital, including scientific research, technology supply chains, and governance of artificial intelligence (AI), the European Union’s tech chief said on 5 July.

Ms Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission in charge of implementing the political priority of “A Europe fit for the Digital Age”, was on a three-day visit to Singapore.

“Singapore is a very important destination for research and innovation, very impressive in things that are of high priority for us – semiconductors, AI, and everything from that ecosystem,” she told The Straits Times at the end of the visit, aimed at deepening cooperation on technology.

One area she is keen to explore with Singapore is how to ensure the semiconductor supply chain is secure, she said.

As the United States restricts China’s access to advanced chips and chipmaking tools, countries around the world have been thinking about how to reduce their reliance on China-produced chips, and how to position themselves as attractive “friendshoring” destinations as chipmakers pivot from China.

Ms Vestager met Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and discussed how Singapore could join forces with Europe on research and innovation by tapping into Horizon EU, a research programme with a budget of almost €100 billion (S$146 billion), in areas such as climate change and smart cities.

Ms Vestager also discussed the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises and climate resilience with Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and Minister-in-Charge of Trade Relations.

She also met Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo, who oversees cyber security and Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative.

Mrs Teo wrote on LinkedIn that she discussed with Ms Vestager how AI Verify and Project Moonshot, toolkits made by Singapore to test for potential harms arising from traditional and generative AI, can be used by people in the EU.

Ms Vestager also visited the Digital Trust Centre at Nanyang Technological University.

The centre has been designated as Singapore’s AI Safety Institute, following a May agreement the EU signed with 10 countries to set up an international network of AI Safety Institutes that will work together to address shared concerns over AI.

“The more capabilities we have as a global community when it comes to making sure that AI is safe to use, the better,” she said.

In her other capacity as EU Commissioner for Competition, Ms Vestager has gained a reputation for bringing antitrust investigations against big tech corporations such as Apple, Google, and Qualcomm.

In April, she announced investigations into Chinese wind farms in Europe and vowed to protect clean tech from unfair competition. She said at the time: “We can’t afford to see what happened to solar panels happening again to electric vehicles, wind, or essential chips.”

The influx of cheap Chinese solar panels drove many European manufacturers out of the market in the late 2010s.

The EU has imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), with levies of up to 37.6 per cent that kicked in on 4 July.

This has prompted China to further an anti-dumping investigation into European brandy. It launched a second probe into pork imports from the EU in June, also in retaliation against the tariffs on EVs.

On the EU tariffs, Ms Vestager said they are not meant to be punitive to the extent of nullifying Chinese competitiveness, but simply to correct the unfair advantage brought about by factors such as subsidies.

“We do not want to start a trade war,” she said.

Chinese media have criticised the EU, which similarly gives subsidies to companies in green industries, accusing it of having double standards.

Ms Vestager readily admits Europe is not subsidy-free. “We have no problem saying we have subsidies. They are just very different kinds of subsidies.”

“Subsidies should not over-compensate and give companies a head start, when they should instead be competitive based on their level of investment in research and innovation, their workers’ productivity, their technology readiness,” she added.
 

Source: The Straits Times ©️ SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.