Singapore denies 'conspiracy' in corporate forays
Singapore denies 'conspiracy' in corporate forays
SINGAPORE (AFP): The Singapore government Thursday denied the
existence of a conspiracy in the overseas expansion drive of
local firms after Australian carrier Qantas blasted the city-
state's business ambitions.
"The Singapore government does not interfere in the decisions
of SingTel and Singapore Airlines," the ministry of finance said
in a statement, citing the island's most high-profile government-
linked companies.
"It has always urged Singapore companies to gear themselves
for global competition," it said in reply to query from AFP.
"SingTel and Singapore Airlines' expansion plans are their own
commercial decisions."
The statement followed accusations that corporate forays by
Singapore Airlines Ltd. (SIA) and Singapore Telecommunications
Ltd. (SingTel) were part of a government conspiracy to take over
Australian companies.
The Singapore government owns 56 percent of SIA and 78 percent
of Singtel, among other companies, but officials maintain that
such firms operate on a purely commercial basis.
Qantas Airways Ltd. chief executive officer Geoff Dixon on
Wednesday lambasted SIA's plan to increase its 25 percent stake
in Air New Zealand, which owns Australian carrier Ansett.
He called it as a backdoor bid to control the aviation
industry in Australia and New Zealand and warned that the move
would cause widespread political and public concern in Australia.
"This is an attempt by Singapore Airlines, which is controlled
by the Singapore government, to take an unprecedented level of
influence over the competitiveness and structure of the aviation
industry on both sides of the Tasman," he said in a statement.
Singapore's Straits Times on Thursday also carried earlier
remarks by Dixon on Australian television that the aviation play
was linked to Singtel's takeover bid for Australia's Cable and
Wireless Optus.
"I think people have got to realize that all these investments
are not single entities in Singapore. They're the Singapore
government," Dixon was quoted as saying.
The Straits Times quoted the Singapore finance ministry as
saying that "it is just coincidental that both these companies
(Optus and Ansett) are based in Australia."
It said the government "does not interfere in the strategic
and commercial decisions of companies" held by Temasek Holdings,
Singapore's cash-rich state investment arm which has stakes in
SIA and SingTel.