Transcript of Remarks by President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Reception with the Overseas Singaporean Community on 23 June 2024

     I am very happy to be here with my wife, Minister Maliki Osman, Minister of State Alvin Tan, and Members of Parliament Mr Sitoh Yih Pin and Mr Sharael Taha. It is always wonderful meeting Singaporeans when we are on official trips abroad. Thank you all for coming – most of you are from Rome, some from outside of Rome. Some of you are studying in Italy. Some of you are part of a religious order. Some are in business or a profession. Some here because of marriage but thank you all for coming.

     I've been in Rome now for four days. First of all, for the Group of Thirty (G30) meeting, whose board I chair. We had Prime Minister Meloni talk to us during the meeting as well.  

     I had the privilege of a private audience with the Pope. And over yesterday, and today, I was also at a Global Commission that deals with the global challenges of water, which I co-chair.

     So it is a busy but very engaging trip. Tomorrow, I have an official trip to Italy, with my delegation. We will be meeting President Mattarella and Prime Minister Meloni.

     It's an important time to be here in Italy. We are really in very uncertain times, with major wars continuing unabated, at tremendous human cost.

     And in Europe itself, the political mood has shifted. As you can tell from the European elections, there’s a reconfiguration of political leadership.

     And Italy, in particular, plays an important role. First, because they have the G7 presidency currently. Prime Minister Meloni just hosted G7 leaders in Puglia.

     Italy is playing an important role in Europe. It's in fact, the eighth largest economy in the world and third largest in Europe, next to Germany and France.

     We've had longstanding links with Italy, and we would like to deepen that relationship. When we think about Italy among Singaporeans, the first thing we think about is fashion and food. But they have deep capabilities in many areas, built up over a long period, and being refreshed.

 I only just learned of an Italian by the name of Rodolfo Nolli, a stonework contractor, who was in Singapore in 1913. He decorated the facades of some of our famous buildings like the Old Supreme Court and, the old General Post Office that is now the Fullerton Hotel.

 And that tradition continues till today, an Italian architect, Carlo Ratti, who was responsible for one of our tallest skyscrapers – the biophilic CapitaSpring Skyscraper at Raffles Place – it houses over 80,000 plants.

 They also have deep capabilities in science and technology – STMicroelectronics has been a key player in our electronics sector in Singapore for decades, going back to the 70s, still with us.

 And we are deepening our relationship with Italy in science and technology. Just last year, we embarked on the Executive Programme for Scientific and Technological Cooperation with them – projects have to be jointly led by principal investigators from both sides, Italy and Singapore. In fact, just in the first year, there were 71 joint proposals from Italy and Singapore, of which 10 were chosen - in a range of areas such as food-tech, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics.

 So it's a relationship that goes back a long time, but it's being refreshed and renewed. And we are deepening our relationship. So I'm glad to be here with my wife and delegation, and once again very happy to be meeting all of you.

 Our companies are also interested in Italy – they are active here. PSA in fact runs the two largest container terminals in Genoa and Venice. GIC has significant investments in Italy, including in data centre that is run 100% on renewable energy in Milan, in fact it is called the “ML5”.

 So it's an economic relationship, it's a cultural relationship - we are always in the Venice Biennale, especially this year where we were in the main exhibition- but it's also a people-to-people relationship.

 And I'm very happy that many of you are living here. Still Singaporean as they come. Still loving the food, still having your Singaporean ways. And hopefully, as I'm sure being ambassadors of Singapore.

 Thank you very much.