S'pore worries over shift in trade strategies

S'pore worries over shift in trade strategies

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore is worried that multinationals may be looking elsewhere to set up shop in Asia due to rising costs in Singapore, according to a report here yesterday.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, citing a conversation he had with Siemens chief executive Heinrich von Pierer last week, said the German electronics giant boss had said the company would make no further investment in Singapore.

"His comments sent a chill down my spine," Goh was quoted saying by the local Straits Times daily.

"I fear other multinational manufacturing companies may be calculating like Siemens," he reportedly said.

Siemens held its two-day corporate executive meeting in Singapore last Tuesday for the first time outside Germany to emphasize its strategic shift in operations to the Asia-Pacific region.

Pierer, whose company has an international procurement center here, met Goh after the meeting.

Goh said that when he asked how Singapore could prevent what happened to Germany from happening to it, Pierer replied: "I am afraid you cannot."

Pierer also reportedly told Goh that Siemens would be investing S$1 billion (US$670 million) over the next few years in China, where the cost of production was much lower and "nothing at all" in Singapore.