S'pore pushes regional investment strategy
S'pore pushes regional investment strategy
SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore yesterday outlined plans to pursue an aggressive regional investment program as part of a strategy to underpin its status as an Asian economic power and join the "first league" of developed nations by 2000.
The city-state of three million people, officially classified as a developed country this month, maintained its ranking as the fifth biggest investor in China last year, and was second in Thailand and Burma, officials said.
According to figures released by the Economic Development Board (EDB), the agency overseeing the "regionalization" thrust, approved Singapore investments in China totaled US$1.6 billion in the six months to June 1995.
Singapore was the eighth largest investor in India, with $80 million for the same period, the EDB said, and was number six in Vietnam and Indonesia.
"All this points to one thing: we continue to maintain our momentum in regional investment," Chua Taik Him, director of international business development at the EDB, told a news conference.
The drive is focused on five "flagship projects" led by the Suzhou Industrial Park near Shanghai, which has drawn 45 international companies with $1.4 billion in investment, the EDB said.
In such projects, Singapore teams up with host-country firms and multinationals to set up industrial zones with their own power and sewage systems and reliable access to ports and airports.
One park is flourishing in Indonesia's Batam island, with 81 tenants employing 42,000 employees and a combined industrial output of $900 million. Singapore is also putting money into a major resort in another Indonesian island, Bintan.
An information-technology park was launched in Bangalore, India last September, while the 500-hectare (1,200-acre) Vietnam- Singapore Industrial Park near Ho Chi Minh city Costing $200 million, is to be launched soon.
According to a national strategy dubbed "Singapore 2000," the island "intends to join the first league of developed nations by the turn of the century," an EDB statement said.
This new goal was set after Singapore, which now has a per- capita gross domestic product of $24,000, reached its goal of crashing into the developed nations' club three years ahead of the target year 1999.
Tax incentives
The EDB said it was poised for more co-investments with multinationals in the region this year, while continuing to nurture outward-bound local firms with tax incentives, capital infusions and investment guarantees.
As part of the effort, the first Overseas Enterprise Incentive awards were given yesterday to two local firms which have established a strong regional presence --- Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd. and Broadway Enterprises Pte. Ltd.
The brewery, maker of Tiger beer, and Broadway, a packaging company, were given tax exemptions on income remitted to Singapore, giving them more funds to invest in upgrading and further investments.
"The growth of these enterprises will be driven by external markets and opportunities, especially in the region, and result in spin-offs to the Singapore economy," an EDB statement said.
Chua said the regionalization efforts of local companies were growing in tandem with domestic investments, allaying earlier fears that the outflow of capital would result in a "hollowing out" of the local economy.
Singapore, whose backbone domestic industry is electronics, is striving to further raise the skills of its tight and highly paid labor pool to shift to higher value-added industries amid intensifying competition from low-cost neighbors.