Opening Remarks by Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) Dr Tan See Leng at FusionX:APAC 2026

To all local and international delegates – start-ups, investors, corporates, researchers, policymakers, and ecosystem partners,

1. A very good morning to all of you, and a warm welcome. It is my pleasure to speak at today’s FusionX:APAC conference.

2. I would like to especially acknowledge the FusionX Group, SGInnovate, A*STAR, and Enterprise Singapore. Today’s event underscores your collective commitment to driving innovation in fusion across the region.

3. Today is significant for several reasons: One is that it marks the first day that the Ministry of Trade and Industry officially takes on its new name of the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry (METI).

4. This renaming reflects the increasing recognition of the importance of energy as an enabler for economic growth, climate goals, and resilience. Although this is a recent change in name, one could argue that Singapore has been in an energy transition for many years:

a. In the early part of this millennium, we had already shifted our energy mix from fuel oil to natural gas, and worked to phase out coal.

b. More recently, we have been scaling up solar energy deployment nationwide, and achieved our target to deploy 2 gigawatt-peak (GWp) of solar by 2030, five years early. So we are now going even further and have raised our 2030 target to 3GWp. We have also announced plans to import low-carbon electricity from the region, and invested in R&D to scale up other emerging low-carbon technologies.

5. We are also studying nuclear fission seriously. Earlier this year, our Prime Minister announced that Singapore will undergo Phase 1 of the IAEA’s Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review mission in 2027, to assess our readiness to make an informed decision about deploying nuclear fission energy.