Singapore trade with ASEAN to exceed $71b
Singapore trade with ASEAN to exceed $71b
SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore's annual trade with its ASEAN partners should cross S$100 billion (US$71.42 billion) by 2000 amid rising economic cooperation in the region, the Trade Development Board (TDB) said yesterday.
Apart from Singapore, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Last year, Singapore's trade with the other ASEAN countries amounted to S$87. 6 billion, or 24 percent of its foreign trade.
"And based on current trends, we expect Singapore's trade with our ASEAN partners to exceed S$100 billion by 2000," TDB director of trade policy Chan Kam Fai told AFP.
"Our trade with ASEAN is definitely better than with the rest of the world, " he said.
"Singapore's trade with ASEAN has been growing at 14.1 percent annually in the 1990's compared with the global average of about 9.9 percent."
Singapore's total trade rose from S$205 billion in 1990 to S$361.5 billion last year.
Chan was reported saying by the Straits Times daily Monday that Singapore's trade with ASEAN had more than doubled in the 1990's.
In 1990, trade with ASEAN was valued at S$39.7 billion and its share of Singapore's total trade was less than one fifth at 19.4 percent.
Chan also told the Straits Times that Singapore's commitment to ASEAN, which celebrated its 30th anniversary on Friday, was also evident in its substantial investments in member countries.
As at the end of 1995, Singapore's cumulative stock of investments in the ASEAN region stood at S$16 billion, or 35 percent of its total foreign direct investment, he said.
Last year, Singapore was the top investor in Vietnam, Malaysia and Burma and the third largest in Indonesia.
Chan said there were firm indications that Singapore-based companies planned to expand their operations in ASEAN countries.
Between 1985 and 1995, ASEAN's economic growth averaged 7.5 percent annually, more than twice the global economy's 3.2 percent.
During the same period, ASEAN's total trade rose 17 percent annually, much higher than the global average of 10 percent.