Cross-border ETF connectivity schemes vital to Singapore

WITH de-globalisation and strategic schisms between China, the United States and Europe, Singapore needs to safeguard its capital markets and their cross-border nature through forging exchange- traded fund (ETF) connectivity schemes with financial centres worldwide.

The US-China rift is part of a broader contest between two fundamentally opposed socioeconomic and political systems. International investors have to adapt to this, and are already wary of Beijing - commitment to integration with international financial markets is superseded by the Communist Party's commitment to stability and control, as evidenced by its intervention during stock market turbulence in China in 2015.

The initial mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic by Beijing and Washington only reinforces this and accelerates the US-China "decoupling". Already, complex global supply and technology chains are shifting in response to US-China frictions, bringing reductions in efficiencies, heightened mutual mistrust and cost increases in capital and consumer prices.