The Singapore Norway Innovation Conference 2021 which took place on 20 and 21 October 2021 was a great success and saw close to 200 physical participants, Team Norway writes.
Team Norway, constituting the Norwegian Business Association Singapore (NBAS), Innovation Norway in Singapore, and the Norwegian Embassy, were the organizers of this year’s edition which was held as a hybrid event at Suntec Convention Centre on the first day, and purely online the second day.
The conference looked at how the drive for sustainability offers new business opportunities in the region.
Day one explored the business opportunities within the green transition – especially green finance, sustainable maritime infrastructure, and smart urban solutions.
The conference was opened by Mr. Halvard Ingebrigtsen, State Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Norway, and Mr. Chee Hong Tat, Senior Minister of State of the Ministry of Transport, Singapore. Ms. Sharanjit Leyl, international news journalist and former BBC Senior Producer, moderated the conference on day one.
Day two consisted of two webinars on maritime digitalization and decarbonization, as well as circular economy.
In the maritime session, the participants did a deep-dive into current industry problem statements associated with maritime communication (VDES satellite, maritime 5G networks, communication technology for aerial and subsea drones) as well as maritime decarbonization (exploring ammonia, hydrogen as an alternative fuel and solutions for bunkering of these new fuels) with some of the leading Norwegian and Singaporean companies presenting their solutions and sharing case studies. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and the Norwegian Coastal Administration provided the keynote speeches, emphasizing business and partnership opportunities for closer collaboration between Singapore and Norway.
In the circular economy session, together with leading stakeholders from Norway and Singapore, the speakers addressed key problem statements affecting Singapore and the region – i.e., the implementation of an efficient deposit return scheme and the efficient management of food waste. Singapore has announced that it will implement a deposit return scheme for empty beverage containers by 2022. Tomra is one of the players involved in this project.
