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Good evening,

It is great to be back in Singapore and joined by my colleague, the Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development, Mary Ng. Although it’s probably more accurate to say I’m joining her tonight because she’s been so often to the region over the past many months.

I am delighted to be here in Singapore to speak with local business leaders about opportunities in Canada.

Singapore is an economic powerhouse, a global hub in this dynamic region, and you all play a vital role as connectors to the world. It’s why Canada is planning to open our trade gateway to the region right here. I just arrived from ASEAN in Jakarta, where I talked to leaders from across the Indo-Pacific, and this evening I’m here to talk about what Canada has to offer.

I want to open with a comment that I usually use at the end of my speeches back home. Canada is the best country in the world, and I’m working hard to make it even better. What do I mean by that? Well, in part it has to do with what I keep hearing from global CEOs about how Canada has the resources to power a net-zero world.

We have free trade deals with two thirds of the globe’s GDP, and we’re the only G7 country with a free trade deal with every other G7 country. We have the best-educated workers in the OECD. We embrace immigration and diversity, and we have stable democratic institutions and values. What could be more important than stability and reliability in a time of such global uncertainty?

Supply chain disruptions, climate change and extreme weather events, war in Europe, again, the erosion of democracy around the world. Now we know well that no country is immune from global instability and corrosive politics. This is why the part about making Canada even better is so important. Our government has worked hard to make sure that we are building a strong, diverse, and growing economy with benefits that are felt by everyone.

We introduced the Canada child benefit that gives 9 out of 10 families more support than ever before and has lifted half a million kids out of poverty, cutting child poverty in half since 2015 in Canada. We’re moving forward on an affordable $10-a-day child care system that over the first two years has already helped women’s participation in the workforce reach historic highs, which, as you know, is a significant contributor to our growing economy.

The promise of Canada is that every generation can reach even higher by benefiting from the hard work of those who came before them. The promise that when you work hard, you can get ahead, with that promise needs to be secured. Because if people no longer believe that they or the next generation will do better, that’s when people start to lose hope, and that’s when corrosive political forces like populism, anger and isolationism start to seep in. That’s not good for democracy. That’s not good for the planet. And of capital importance to people in this room, that’s not good for business either.

Major investors from around the world are catching on to the untapped potential of Canada and Canadians. Last year, Volkswagen announced that it will be investing billions in Canada with its first-ever overseas electric vehicle battery gigafactory. And when the leaders at Volkswagen were asked, “Why Canada?” they pointed to our critical minerals supply chains. They pointed to our clean electricity grid. But mostly they said it was the calibre of Canadian workers that sealed the deal. And let me give you just one example of Canadian innovation that’s coming up with the solutions the world needs. It’s a company called CarbonCure, which has found a way to take carbon pollution and inject it into concrete to make it even stronger. This company from the Atlantic coast of Canada now has a global reach and has mitigated an estimated 400 tonnes of CO2 right here across the Pacific.

In Singapore, two different companies, seizing the opportunities of a changing world, and investing in a better future with Canada. Of course, they could have used examples in energy innovation, food security, AI technology, or even robotics sending us to the moon. They would have been here all night. There’s a lot going on in the world right now. In these times, it is incumbent upon us to recognize that the world is more deeply connected than ever. Climate policy is security policy, is social policy, is economic policy.

We’re here to work with our partners in the Indo-Pacific region to build our economies in a way that benefits everyone.

We’re here to continue working with our Indo-Pacific partners to create more growth, growth that benefits everyone. This is the work ahead for us together, for Singapore and Canada. Work that I’ll be speaking about with Prime Minister Lee again tomorrow, as we have over the past years. And that is how we will foster hope and opportunity.

If we create good jobs across the economy, if we hold fast to our democratic principles and values, if we make thoughtful investments that build a safer future while making sure that people are at the centre of all of those decisions, then and only then do we build a better future for everyone.

Thank you very much.