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.