Ong hopes for stroger cooperation

Ong hopes for stroger cooperation

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore and Australia should work together to explore burgeoning business opportunities in Asian markets such as Indonesia, Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong said Tuesday.

"We should combine our strengths to seize and develop these opportunities," Ong said at a banquet for visiting Australian Governor General Bill Hayden, who arrived here Monday on a three- day visit.

Ong cited an existing "trilateral relationship" linking Singapore, the Australian state of Victoria and the Chinese province of Jiangsu as an example of such cooperation.

"Indonesia, with its vast infrastructural needs, rich cultural heritage and large natural resources, is another potential partner for trilateral cooperation," the Singapore president said.

Ong, who graduated in architecture from the Australian University of Adelaide, also offered to help Australia integrate with Asia, noting a common vision of a dynamic Asia-Pacific.

Many Australians gave their lives during the Second World War in defense of Singapore and what was then known as Malaya, and fought in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s to stop the march of communism, he said.

"Today, Australia is once again active in Asia -- not to fight a war on someone else's behalf, but on your own convictions that your future is locked with Asia's," Ong said.

Hayden held talks Tuesday with Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Singapore is Australia's largest trade partner in Southeast Asia with annual two-way trade totaling about US$4 billion.