Singapore PM Lawrence Wong Sees Energy Prices "Higher for Longer" and Warns AI Could Break the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder
Remarks at the DBS Asia Future Forward Conference in Singapore, October 14, 2026
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong used a fireside chat with DBS Chief Executive Susan Tan at the bank's inaugural Asia Future Forward Conference to lay out a sober view of the operating environment for companies in the region. The most market-relevant message was that Singapore is planning for a more prolonged Middle East conflict and expects energy prices to remain elevated. He also made clear that the government will not trade labor-market stability for speed in AI adoption, which has direct implications for how companies operating in Singapore deploy automation.
Energy: A Longer Conflict, but a Market That Has Adapted
Wong said Singapore is "anticipating a more prolonged conflict" and that "energy prices will stay higher for longer." His tone was measured rather than alarmist. He said the global energy market has proven "surprisingly adaptive and resilient," more so than many had feared when the Strait of Hormuz was first closed. "There was an initial fear that there would be a global crunch," he said, but companies and countries "have been able to adapt." He expects Singapore and Southeast Asia to retain access to supply, and said the region will look at deeper cooperation on energy security.
He credited Singapore's decades-old decision to become an energy hub, despite having no oil and gas resources of its own, for allowing it to keep supplying itself and regional neighbors during the recent crisis through its refining capacity. He framed the AI power demand question as a decarbonization problem rather than a supply problem. "It's not an energy challenge per se. It's a green energy challenge," he said, noting that Southeast Asian countries building data centers should ideally use green power but that "many of the projects today are still not bankable." Singapore has launched a blended finance platform with concessionary capital to lower hurdle rates, and will continue to push for the ASEAN power grid.
AI and Jobs: The Risk Is the Missing Training Ground
Wong's most original point was about entry-level work. He argued that the education system can handle AI the way it handled calculators, but that the workplace is the harder adjustment. Junior staff typically do routine tasks such as research, minutes, speech drafts and slide decks, and "there's a lot of tacit learning that comes from it." AI will replace that work, he said, "but we should be careful not to automate away the learning that comes from it." The government is concerned that "that bottom rung of the career ladder" may break, leaving young people without sufficient training. Singapore is studying the issue sector by sector, including medicine, law, banking and engineering, and is weighing new programs or schemes with its tripartite partners.
Tan illustrated the problem with DBS's own experience. Credit memos for the corporate bank once took weeks of number crunching and industry research, and agents can now do much of that work. She said the business head has introduced deliberate "cognitive breaks" so junior analysts still have to think. Wong called DBS "an enlightened employer" but said every employer needs to do this more deliberately.
On labor policy, Wong rejected the quicker path of replacing workers with AI. He called Singapore's approach "the harder road" but "also the more sustainable road," arguing that the shortcut risks disenfranchisement, more dislocation and "an even stronger backlash to AI and technology." He was explicit that this is not a zero-retrenchment policy. "We are not saying zero retrenchments. Not at all," he said. Companies that automate should "do it properly," with fair treatment and advance notice so unions can help workers retrain, while the government adds support programs. He warned that if AI "causes massive global unemployment, I don't think the world can continue like that." He expects AI deployment to take well under the 30 years it took factories to move from steam to electricity, but hopes it stretches over "10 plus years" to give economies time to adjust.
Wong set out three non-negotiables for Singapore's AI adoption: safety and security, human accountability for critical decisions, and broad-based benefits. "We are not trying to be an AI-driven society. We are trying to be a better society enabled by AI," he said. He also said Singapore wants to remain open, with the ability to plug into different technology stacks, and that ASEAN's digital framework should follow the same approach rather than become a closed system.
Frontier AI Governance: Realistic About the Timeline
Asked about the recent call, which Wong signed, for international oversight of frontier AI development, he was frank that a global framework is unlikely soon. Aviation, finance and civilian nuclear power all run on international frameworks, he noted, and AI could follow "in theory yes, realistically in the near term not likely to happen." Tan pointed out that Washington and Beijing did not sign the call. Wong welcomed the first move by the US government and said the frontier labs themselves recognize the need for some oversight, even if they disagree on its form.
He suggested building on voluntary requirements, for example with an independently appointed international governing board, "not selected by the AI labs themselves," and an independent audit process. If investors, customers and the marketplace recognize such standards, he said, labs will have more incentive to participate. His stated goal was to "keep p(doom) as low as possible" without stifling innovation.
US-China and the Cost of Resilience
Wong said both Washington and Beijing "clearly want to coexist" and avoid confrontation and decoupling, and are negotiating on the basis of what he described as their own formulation of a "constructive relationship of strategic stability based on respect, fairness and reciprocity." The two leaders have met twice and are due to meet again at APEC and the G20. Wong's advice to executives was not to wait for resolution. "We can't afford to wait," he said, and Asian economies are already diverging, with those that move decisively on AI benefiting more.
He acknowledged that the trade and technology environment is increasingly shaped by leverage, and that smaller countries are more vulnerable. Companies, he said, can no longer run purely on just-in-time efficiency: "You have to have resilience, and that costs something, and you have to factor that into the cost of doing business." Singapore's response is to maintain relationships with all major powers, keep investing heavily in defense and deterrence, and stay economically relevant. Others may try to squeeze Singapore, he said, "but then they will find that Singapore is like a durian."
Singapore's Value Proposition: Not the Cheapest, and Not Trying to Be
Wong acknowledged that Singapore is "certainly not the cheapest location in Southeast Asia," and when asked about the strong Singapore dollar, he declined any suggestion of weakening it for competitiveness. The Monetary Authority of Singapore will set policy independently, he said, with the currency reflecting fundamentals and helping to contain imported inflation. Exporters will have to factor the exchange rate into their costs. His argument was that companies are looking for "capabilities," "stability" and "predictability" rather than the lowest cost, and that Singapore must compete on value rather than price.
The government is building ecosystems that link multinationals, local suppliers, research capabilities and skilled workers, and extending them regionally through the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, links to Indonesia's Riau Islands, and connections with Vietnam and Thailand. Tan noted that Singapore accounts for about 10% of global semiconductor production and 20% of packaging and testing. Wong said the investment pipeline "remains healthy and continues to grow" and that the startup ecosystem is markedly more dynamic than 20 years ago.
ASEAN Integration and Why Asian Capital Markets Lag
Wong described the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, which Tan said is expected to be signed in November across 11 member states, as a "first but important step" rather than "a magic switch." Fragmented rules on data and payments remain a major frustration for businesses, and much work is needed to turn the agreement into practical benefits such as smoother cross-border payments and easier scaling. Singapore, which chairs ASEAN next year, plans to prioritize these initiatives. He said trade growth is solid within Asia and with established partners such as China, the US and Europe, with newer opportunities in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Tan noted that trade outside the US has risen to 92% of the total from 89% around Liberation Day.
Asked why Asia's capital markets remain a fraction of the US despite comparable GDP, Wong rejected the premise that this is primarily a capital markets problem. "If you are a startup anywhere in the world, where do you go to scale, get funding, get the networks?" he asked. "The answer is simple. It is America." He said the US is the place where entrepreneurs can "break things very quickly" and "get rich very quickly too," and that no one, including Europe, has replicated Silicon Valley. Southeast Asia, he said, is in a worse position than Europe because it lacks a single market and has greater operating complexity. The fix is ecosystem-building and ASEAN integration, with deeper capital markets following. Singapore's own market measures have shown "some positive results, but we'll see."
In closing, Wong said he prefers music played by humans rather than machines, a remark Tan tied back to DBS's goal of being an AI-enabled bank "with a heart."