The Department of Trade merged with the Timber Industry Board to form the Trade Development Board (TDB) in 1983. TDB was tasked to promote Singapore’s exports internationally and develop Singapore as a trade hub.[2] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, overseas trade offices were established in cities such as Bonn, Beijing, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo to cultivate bilateral trade relations as well as provide market information and assistance to foreign businessmen. In 1989, TDB launched Tradenet, the world’s first nationwide Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network service for trade documentation. In April 2002, TDB was restructured to form International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) and took on a new mandate of helping Singapore-based companies venture overseas.
