SINGAPORE, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said on Wednesday that Singapore, as a global hub for clean energy investments, will benefit from the rapid growing opportunities in clean energy.
He said at the opening ceremony of the fifth Asia Clean Energy Summit Conference and Exhibition that Singapore expects the recent investment in the clean energy space to generate about 1,000 professional jobs and 180 million Singapore dollars (129.8 million U.S. dollars) in annual business spending in the next five years.
The minister quoted a study of International Renewable Energy Agency as saying that the clean energy space is one of the fastest growing sectors in terms of employment and investment, and in Southeast Asia, the clean energy sector can have 2.2 million jobs by 2030, far more than the 600,000 jobs in 2016.
According to Zulkifli, Singaporean companies are using the new green growth opportunities in Southeast Asia to innovate and transform, and there will be more clean energy companies choosing to invest in Singapore. He took ENGIE and EDF as examples, saying the two French companies will both establish their Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore.
"The strong interest and growing investments in clean energy are timely, as the international community works towards finalizing the Paris Agreement Work Programme at the 24th Conference of Parties in Katowice," he said.
Zulkifli also said that Singapore takes investing in clean energy as one of the strategies under its Climate Action Plan, and it has an ambitious target to increase its adoption of solar energy to 350 Megawatt peak by 2020, and to one Gigawatt peak beyond that year. "We welcome the partnership of all stakeholders as we forge ahead in the global energy transition," he added.
The Asia Clean Energy Summit Conference and Exhibition is the region's leading event focusing on clean energy technology, policy and finance. The fifth edition of this event opened in Singapore on Wednesday morning, together with another event, the International Off-Grid Renewable Energy Conference and Exhibition.
