Singapore ready to lend a hand to RI

Singapore ready to lend a hand to RI

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Following are excerpts of a Reuters interview with Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong conducted on Monday.

You were going to lead a mission to Indonesia on Thursday. Ahead of that visit, how would you characterize relations between your two countries?

I would say relations between Indonesia and Singapore are good, they are friendly. There is an expectation from Indonesia that Singapore can play a role in helping the economy to recover, so I'm going there to assess for myself what we can do. I'm going there with some ideas and see whether they are practical ideas for the Indonesians.

Looking at the trade mission itself, President (Abdurrahman) Wahid visited Singapore in November as well as other ASEAN nations, and said that he'd like to see a greater partnership. You actually launched the idea of a trade mission. What concrete measures do you see this trip producing?

First, I think the security situation in Indonesia causes potential investors to be rather cautious. I've read reports from risk analysts as well as political commentators that investors will hold back unless the security situation improves.

And of course people are watching the political stability of Indonesia. But nevertheless, I'm there to express confidence in the present government. I think it's the best government you can get given the circumstance. It's a very difficult job for President Abdurrahman, but I think there are prospects of helping them.

So I'm thinking first of focusing on the projects that we have in (the islands of) Batam, Bintan...that are close to Singapore, and we have ongoing industrial parks and tourist resorts.

So I'm going to expand on the investments we have over there. Now secondly, we have about six million tourists visiting Singapore every year. I'm looking for ways to funnel as many of these tourists to Indonesia as possible. That would involve joint advertising, by joint I mean we would advertise Indonesia and Singapore at our expense, in other words to try and funnel as many of these tourists as possible to go to Indonesia.

And thirdly, unless Indonesia can release the IBRA (Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency) assets -- that is those assets under management by IBRA, it is difficult to get the economy going. So I'm trying to see if we can play a catalytic role, along with others, to put the assets to work.

Today's Straits Times editorial noted some of the potential hurdles. It basically urged caution to what Singapore can do right now. If you were able to achieve one thing in particular in terms of confidence, what would that be?

Well, if we can get some of the foreign investors to go along with us, then that would signal a return of confidence in Indonesia. The rest is up to Indonesia -- the security situation is beyond any one of us, it's for Indonesians to handle. So if we can get some projects going, for Batam, Bintan, that's easier, nevertheless it's important if we can get some projects going there. But in other parts of Indonesia which we are focused on, I think that's a bit more difficult, but nevertheless I think we should try.

Looking at the provinces, particularly Ambon or Aceh, do developments there to some degree endanger economic recovery and ultimately put Indonesia itself at risk?

Oh very much, because investors look at Indonesia from what they read in the newspapers. If there are conflicts, disturbances, demonstrations on Ambon and Aceh, investors are going to take a watch-and-see attitude. The separatist pressures are worrying enough, but in Jakarta itself we are seeing demonstrations. So I think the Indonesians have got to understand that the more they demonstrate against the government, the more they put pressure on the government, the more difficult it is for the government to attract investments into Indonesia.

And of course the risk of Indonesia splintering is aways there. I myself hold the view that it won't happen in the short term, but the risks are there for Indonesia.

How would you assess how the government has responded to developments in Ambon and Aceh?

Well, I think it's a very complex problem. They've tried as best as they could and the President has said that it's a matter for the locals to handle. I mean they could provide the security apparatus, but essentially the local leaders themselves must get together and resolve the problem. It's just rather complex and complicated.

Sir, talking about other expectations for Singapore, one is that the population itself will expand perhaps from around four million right now to around five million perhaps by the end of the decade. Assuming that that also includes a greater foreign inflow into this country, how or what policies from the government or the PAP would look to...bring in those new potential voters?

We have the capacity to accommodate five, maybe in extreme, six million people in Singapore -- I mean the infrastructure we can take care of. We can build higher, we can make sure we have enough open space for Singaporeans to have a good life in Singapore. I think the texture of Singapore will change when we have more foreigners in Singapore.

And already we are telling Singaporeans that in future to succeed as an economy, as a nation, we have to be more cosmopolitan. You can't be the same old Singapore with just Chinese, Indians and Malays, trying to shore up and sustain a rather modern sophisticated economy. And the economy is big given the size of the population, so we have to change the nature of our society, we have to be much more international, we have to be much more urbane, much more cosmopolitan.