MTI Internship: The Services Shift: ASEAN’s Roadmap to the Future

ASEAN Division - The Services Shift: ASEAN’s Roadmap to the Future

This internship project offers an exciting opportunity for interns to explore ASEAN’s services economy. In a rapidly changing and unpredictable world, it is vital for Singapore to maintain its position as a leading services-based economy, and understand where we can utilise our competitive advantage to facilitate strong and sustainable economic growth within the region. Interns will get the chance to conduct a deep-divesinto Singapore’s existing services trade with ASEAN, identify key drivers and barriers to growth in services trade, and discern new and emerging services sectors that Singapore can leverage to build a competitive advantage, and enhance regional economic integration. This will culminate in shaping Singapore’s posture towards growing ASEAN’s trade in services, by researching and developing actionable policy recommendations to propose to ASEAN Member States. The intern will: a. Conduct an impact analysis on Singapore’s existing services trade in ASEAN by sectors, key engines of growth and barriers to trade within the region. b. Provide actionable and feasible recommendations to grow Singapore’s trade in services with ASEAN by (a) identifying emerging services sectors, taking into account Singapore’s economic strengths. c. If possible, develop the above deliverables into a proposal to table at ASEAN meetings to deliver and implement within the next 3-5 years. d. Collaborate with other teams/agencies across the government to identify opportunities to grow services trade within ASEAN. e. Assist the ASEAN Services Team with day-to-day policy coordination, and where opportune, support ongoing Free Trade Agreement negotiations for the Services chapter.

• Applicants should be in their penultimate year of undergraduate studies and have a strong interest in global trade, international relations, policy work and more importantly, ASEAN. • Applicants should be meticulous, and possess good research, critical thinking and writing skills. It will be a bonus if applicants are inquisitive and willing to undertake new technical disciplines/tasks on the job. • Prior internship experience in a related field is not necessary, but a plus.