• Singapore links future competitiveness to resilience, cooperation, and sustainability
• Alvin Tan urges logistics leaders to prepare for disruption and opportunity
• ASEAN gains from global manufacturing shifts under China-plus-one strategy

As Southeast Asia cements its role at the centre of global supply chain realignment, Singapore has issued a clear message: the region’s future competitiveness depends on resilience, cooperation, and sustainability. Opening transport logistic and air cargo Southeast Asia 2025 in Singapore, Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan urged logistics leaders to prepare for a decade defined by disruption and opportunity.

“We are living in an era of multiple and overlapping weather systems,” Tan said, describing the pressures of geopolitical tensions, trade fragmentation, and climate risk.

“We must upgrade our ships and planes to weather the storms ahead – bigger, smarter, greener.”

Tan highlighted how Southeast Asia has benefited from the ongoing diversification of global manufacturing. “Global companies are increasingly adopting a China-plus-one strategy, and ASEAN has become an attractive alternative,” he said.