Asia House and SIF Partner to Promote Business and Cultural Exchanges between the United Kingdom and Singapore

London, United Kingdom, 15 May 2012 – London-based Asia House and the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) have embarked on a new partnership to promote business and cultural exchanges between the peoples of Singapore and the United Kingdom through the Singapore-United Kingdom Young Business Ambassadors (YBA) programme.

The three-year partnership on the annual YBA programme will enable outstanding young British and Singaporean professionals to spend 11 weeks working and living in each other’s cities. London will be the latest addition to SIF’s global network of young business ambassadors in Shanghai, Mumbai, Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore.

Says Asia House’s chairman, Sir John Boyd KCMG: “The Asia House is constantly seeking opportunities to build dynamic links to promote understanding, and encourage the exchange of ideas to build stronger relationships between the UK and Asian countries. This is the first such collaboration for Asia House with an international institution, and we see tremendous value in providing future corporate leaders the opportunity to develop global perspectives and connectivity by gaining firsthand understanding of foreign business environments, as well as developing social and professional contacts.”

Both Asia House and the SIF are inviting companies in London and Singapore to nominate outstanding employees for the programme, joining participating companies such as ARUP, British Telecoms, Barclays Bank, DBS Bank and Keppel Corporation.

SIF Governor Ms Jennifer Lewis says: “At the SIF, we believe that such cross-cultural interactions deepen understanding between communities and this is a significant milestone in our efforts to enrich the tapestry of Singapore-United Kingdom relations. We are delighted to launch this partnership with another renowned institution in the UK.”

The SIF inked a memorandum of understanding with the British Council (BC) in Singapore last year to foster exchanges of ideas and perspectives through arts residencies and collaborations. Utopias, an exhibition arising from the first SIF-BC artist-in-residence programme will launch on 17 May 2012 and will run till 2 June 2012 at the Asia House Studio in London. The exhibition premiered at the National Museum of Singapore in November last year.

“In this interconnected world, the active exchanges between artists of the two countries and now young business professionals would only contribute to rich, meaningful and multi-faceted engagements. We will focus on extending the breadth and depth of such global cross-disciplinary networks where people and ideas are brought together to spark imagination and action for a better world,” adds Ms Lewis.