Singapore to boost ties with RI

Singapore to boost ties with RI

JAKARTA (JP): Singapore, celebrating its 31st National Day
today, plans to strengthen its relationship with Indonesia.

Singapore Ambassador to Indonesia, Edward Lee, said that the
opening of the Bintan Beach International Resort by President
Soeharto and Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in June is
one example of greater cooperation.

"This project, which is slated to become a premier tourist
destination in the region, is an example of efforts to bring
mutual benefit," Lee said in a statement released yesterday.

He added that the opening of the resort is the direct result
of the decision by both countries to carry out joint tourism
development under the Indonesia-Singapore Tourism Cooperation
Agreement signed in September 1994.

About one million annual tourism arrivals to Bintan are
projected by the year 2000, he said.

Singapore is Indonesia's fifth largest investor with key
sectors in paper, real estate, hotels and restaurants, metal
goods, transportation, chemical industries and trade. It is also
Indonesia's third largest trading partner after Japan and the
United States.

In facing the future, he said, the countries of this region
will have to step up regional and multilateral cooperation. For
many years Indonesia and Singapore have cooperated within the
framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

With the coming ASEAN Informal Summit in Jakarta, the two
countries will continue cooperating to keep their relationship
relevant in today's fast-changing world, especially in the
economic field, he said.

"I am confident that Singapore and Indonesia relations will
grow even stronger and closer in the coming years. Although the
two countries differ immensely, in terms of geography and
population size, we possess complementary attributes and synergy
to further enhance mutual cooperation," Lee said. (31)