Singapore business, finance and trade news, every Monday.
SG Joins Washington's Forced-Labour Tax List
S$9.5 billion ($7.4 billion) of Singapore's domestic exports to the US, about a third of the total, now get Washington's 12.5% forced-labour tariff. Some of the exceptions include energy goods, some electronics, aerospace parts, and Section 232-covered pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. The rate applies because Singapore neither bans forced-labour imports nor has signed a US Agreement of Reciprocal Trade promising one. Gan said Singapore presented US government data showing no evidence of forced-labour involvement but it doesn’t seem to have done the trick. To be fair, it seems like a tax is par for the course these days. Of the 60 economies the US investigated, none got a full exemption; only about 10, including Mexico, the UK, Canada and India, got a 10% rate.
Read more: Business Times
Banks Earn Record Wealth Fees
Wealth fees reached record highs at Singapore's big three lenders in the second quarter. DBS was up 42 percent to S$919 million ($716 million), OCBC was up 44 percent, and UOB was up more than 29 percent. The revenue is helping protect the banks from tepid lending income as interest rates have been easing. UOB is selling its asset management arm to Allianz Global Investors for S$555 million ($432 million), as it will be booking a capital gain as it shifts toward what it’s calling “open-architecture wealth distribution” instead of running funds itself.
Read more: Taipeitimes (CEO quotes), Business Times (SMID stock picks), Business Times (Allianz deal terms)
GIC Puts $1B of PE Stakes on the Block
GIC is shopping about $1 billion of private equity fund stakes, including holdings in EQT, TPG Asia and KKR. PJT Partners is running the process. Talks are early, and no trade details have been confirmed so far. The sale comes after a less-than-stellar 3.6% five-year annualised return, the sovereign wealth fund's weakest in more than a decade.
Read more: Business Times
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Linggiu Reservoir Moonlights as Solar Farm
The reservoir that supplies much of Singapore's water will now also provide some of its electricity too. The Energy Market Authority gave Sembcorp Utilities conditional approval to import 300 MW from a floating solar and battery project at Johor's Linggiu Reservoir, a 2.2 gigawatt-peak installation with up to 4.3 gigawatt-hours of storage, developed with Malaysian state entity KPRJ Environment and Qua Energy. A second approval was given to Southern Solar Alliance (a unit of Ditrolic Energy), for 600 MW from a different Johor solar/ battery facility. Both developers want to begin commercial operations around 2029, but still need to ink power purchase agreements, get financing, and clear approvals on the Malaysian side. The tally of conditionally approved cross-border clean power projects is now seven (6.25 GW combined).
Read more: Business Times (project specs), Ema Gov (emissions)
Four in Five SMEs Flag Rising Costs
Four in five of 540 firms polled by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that rising costs were their top worry, up from 65 percent a year ago. Just over half of the respondents are bracing for lower profits in 2026 even as nearly 80% expect to stay in the black. National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat used Wednesday's SME conference to announce two upcoming measures to cut approval red tape, aimed particularly at smaller firms. DBS followed with a bundled SME support programme built on top of the government's July 29 S$900 million ($690 million) relief package.
Read more: Business Times (advisory panel), Business Times (DBS for SMEs)
GovTech Layoffs Skew Toward “Older” Staff
Officers in their 40s made up about two-fifths of the 93 GovTech staff retrenched in July, and another 30 percent were over 50. The cuts, the first of three phases over two years, target contract officers in project and vendor management as the agency makes a change from overseeing outside vendors to building products in-house. The retrenched are still on GovTech's payroll and getting job placement help, and the agency continues to hire software engineers, data specialists, and cybersecurity experts elsewhere. Despite the shift, vendors will remain "a key partner."
Read more: Business Times
SIA Sends A380s to Melbourne
Singapore Airlines will increase flights of the A380 out of Changi. Melbourne gets daily double-decker service after going without any A380 flights in the last seasonal schedule. Auckland and Shanghai will move to daily too. Frankfurt, previously served five times a week, will be removed from the A380 map in the network's only cut. Available seat miles will go up 15.1%. London Heathrow and Sydney will maintain their twice-daily service; Delhi and Mumbai stay daily.
Read more: Simpleflying
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