SINGAPORE – One of the most-watched global events to be held in Singapore since the start of the pandemic was under way on Wednesday (Nov 17) in a meticulously planned albeit muted fashion, as the Republic took another step towards business as usual as a leading events hub.
The Bloomberg New Economy Forum (NEF) saw Covid-19 testing and safety measures implemented with no hiccups for about 300 international business and government leaders who descended on Sentosa island’s ritzy Capella hotel.
As part of a pilot scheme by Singapore starting this week – to allow larger gatherings of fully vaccinated attendees who undergo prior testing – the NEF is helping create a blueprint for how such events can be done, Bloomberg Media’s global communications head Brian Strong told The Straits Times.
“The protocols are stringent in the best way possible – to keep people safe,” he added.
All participants international and local must be fully vaccinated, and must take a daily antigen rapid test (ART) provided free of charge by organisers at seven testing stations around the island.
Members of the media were assigned to take their tests at a relatively deserted Sentosa Beach Station carpark, with only two other individuals showing up during the fuss-free, half-hour wait for the result to be SMSed over.
With a negative result – that is also recorded in the TraceTogether app – a participant gets a “Daily Pin”, which will be in a different colour for each of the NEF days from Wednesday to Friday.
ST understands that as at noon, there have been no positive Covid-19 test results returned.
The Daily Pin allows a participant to board a shuttle and enter the event premises at Capella.
Shuttles are the only way to get to the NEF, as car or taxi drop-offs are not allowed for security reasons.
Media personnel are further sequestered in one of the hotel’s two-storey manors, or bungalow-style accommodation, which has been repurposed as a press centre.
Drinks, snacks, breakfast, lunch and a pool view keep reporters comfortable as they cover panels and plenaries alike – some 30 sessions over the next three days – via a TV in the press centre.
They can access the main ballroom venue only if escorted by staff – and if capacity considerations allow.
Breakout sessions on the sidelines of the event are not open for coverage either, and organisers issued a stern note to media that “door-stopping will not be permitted”.
Only prearranged interviews are on the table, for which media can reserve a room next to the main ballroom.
Meanwhile, delegates – with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo some of the bigger names on the roll – are also constantly reminded to keep their masks on and to stay a metre apart, through signs, posters and the presence of safe distancing ambassadors, who are not dressed in red T-shirts as they usually are at other venues.
About a thousand staff and volunteers from Bloomberg and other vendors are involved in the NEF, although not all are on site at any one time.
As the event falls under the pilot initiative announced by the Government on Monday, zoning restrictions have been lifted and groups of up to five are allowed to dine together at designated restaurants.
There are six of these, with two at Capella and the rest spread among four other designated hotels in the city area.
News of the dining group size sparked backlash when it was first reported by ST in October, with some perceiving inconsistency in rules for forum delegates and people in Singapore – who must be from the same household to dine out in groups of five.
Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong explained then that the larger group size would facilitate business networking, one of the key objectives of the NEF.
He stressed that the requirements to be fully vaccinated and undergo daily pre-event testing were stricter than those for events such as wedding receptions, where attendees are already allowed to dine in groups of five.
Mr Gan has spoken of the importance of pulling off events like the NEF in affirming Singapore’s role as a global business capital and node for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (Mice), as the nation shifts to living with Covid-19.
Although the Shangri-La Dialogue scheduled for June this year and World Economic Forum in August were both called off with organisers citing the uncertain and deteriorating Covid-19 situation then, recent events like Gamescom Asia and the Joint Leadership Summit of the top Mice associations, both in October, were held successfully.
The Singapore Tourism Board has announced a pipeline of Mice events in 2022, including the Singapore Airshow in February and Global Health Security Conference in June.
Singapore remains in its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic, reporting four-digit cases a day since August and hitting a record 5,324 on Oct 27.
But most of its new cases are asymptomatic or mild, with 85 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.
Covid-19, alongside climate change and China, are the topics of the day at the NEF, which comes days after a surprise United States-China climate pact at the United Nations COP26 talks in Glasgow, and hours since US President Joe Biden and his counterpart Xi Jinping spoke in an attempt to defuse tensions between the two major powers.
The inaugural NEF in 2018 was also hosted by Singapore after a last-minute switch from Beijing amid frosty ties with the US. It was held in Beijing the next year, and virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic.
On Wednesday, prominent voices from both sides struck a conciliatory tone, with former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger describing the Biden-Xi talks as a good start towards avoiding conflict, while Chinese vice-president Wang Qishan acknowledged that Beijing could not develop in isolation from the rest of the world.
Climate alone will occupy half of the agenda on the first day, with Google chief Sundar Pichai, Temasek chief executive Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, Singapore’s Mr Gan and other ministers from Egypt, Denmark, Rwanda, Australia all scheduled to discuss related issues from green financing and technologies to sustainable growth models.
