Investing in Europe - The Way Forward

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Investing in Europe - The Way Forward

Mr Jyrki Katainen

25 September 2015

11.15am - 12.15pm

SMU Mochtar Riady Auditorium

Singapore

Europe was recovering from one of the worst financial and economic crisis in recent years. Many of the Eurozone nations that looked down and out were now roaring back to health, and the economy was growing across the continent. However, the crisis had taken its toll and the legacy of the crisis will continue to be felt for years to come. Youth unemployment reached a record high with a staggering 6 million job losses during the crisis. There was also a sharp drop in investment across Europe.

In his time as Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness of the European Commission, Jyrki Katainen was tasked to deliver the new jobs, growth and investment plan to enhance the EU Single Market in all its key areas. In this lecture, he shared how this new investment plan for Europe could add up to €440 billion to the EU’s GDP, creating over a million new jobs in the coming years.

The EU's fund for strategic investment, new project portal and promising plans for its single market make Europe a hotbed for investors.
Singapore is the EU's most important economic partner within ASEAN, channelling 60 cents of every Euro invested in the region.
While bilateral trade agreements between individual ASEAN and EU countries show promise, hope for an ASEAN-EU free trade agreement remains.

Speaker

Mr Jyrki Katainen

Vice-President of the European Commission and Prime Minister
Finland (2011 - 2014)

On economic integration in Europe

In Europe, we like to think we know something about what a challenge is representing. By creating the world's largest single market we have gained a lot of experience on rules-based integration.

In Europe, we like to think we know something about what a challenge is representing. By creating the world's largest single market we have gained a lot of experience on rules-based integration.

Mr Jyrki Katainen
Vice-President of the European Commission and Prime Minister
Finland (2011 - 2014)

And just to put this in perspective, the stock of European investment in Singapore is greater than that of the United States, Japan and China combined. It is clearly therefore in the EU's strategic interest to strengthen its relationship with ASEAN.