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)