 |
Singapore to increase economic cooperation
with Maghreb countries of Algeria and Tunisia.
April 4, 2006
Singapore’s Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong is currently
on an exploratory visit to Algeria and Tunisia, also called the
Maghreb countries. It is part of Singapore’s efforts to deepen
political and economic engagement with MENA or Middle East and North
Africa.
This visit to North Africa is the first for
Singapore, since former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew last visited
Algiers in 1964.
A second trip is in the pipeline to visit
Morocco and Libya.
So why has this interest in the Maghreb
countries surfaced? What do both countries and regions stand to
benefit from closer economic ties?
For answers to these and
more, Howie Lim spoke to Mr George Abraham, Chairman of the GA Group
in Singapore.
GA: I think we need to look at new markets
for Singapore because we’re really running out of markets where
we’ve been able to do well and what with ASEAN now bumbling along,
as some people call it, and tow huge markets that have loomed up,
China and India, competing with us on many fronts, we need to
leverage on advantages that we have in Singapore’s geographical
position and the fatch that we’ve been able to capitalize on it
effectively to become the 13th largest trading nation in the world
given the fact that we can’t even be seen on the world map! We
certainly have strengths we can offer to people who are willing to
look at us seriously.
Some areas Singapore can offers
its expertise in are water management and tourism. What can these
countries offer Singapore in return or how will both sides benefit
from more economic cooperation?
GA: In the case of water
management, it’s pretty obvious. We have scarce resources which
we’ve been able to manage well, partly due to effectively managing
water conservation areas to natural rainfall to recycling and
desalination so we have a lot of expertise that we can share and
it’s the cost effectiveness that we’ll probably be able to share as
well. In the area of tourism, we have a huge number of tourists that
come to Singapore. A lot say that it’s just a huge number of people
who are passing through but we have to understand that if they not
only pass through and spend money as well, that effectively means we
are able to cater to the interest of the tourist. We have a lot in
common and I think what we can share with them is how we have
created interest spots in tourism, how we have effectively managed
tourists who come through Singapore and share the experiences we
have had of working with other countries in joint tourism management
projects so this is an area we can also look at. The Northern
African belt is actually a very interesting belt especially the
countries of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. They have a lot of
deserts and in spite of that, they have interesting lifestyles that
people find fascinating.
Would that constitute the
flipside of things, of how they’ll contribute to us? It is after all
like a business transaction.
GA: We can have Singaporeans
who have gone out into the region to involve themselves in tourism
start looking at other fields and this could include North Africa.
But we also need to look at another aspect which is business related
and that is the business of catering to tourists. Now, the tourism
industry ahs a special clientele of people who don’t just buy cheap
trinkets but they’re also interested in shopping for high end goods
and this is a specialty area that Singaporeans have been able to do
over the years and this is an area that we can look at very
seriously. We would not only look at helping them to manage their
tourism potential effectively or develop tourism or have joint
projects where we can have people fly through and stop in Northern
Africa before they come to our part of the world for joint projects
like we have in the ASEAN countries but we can also look at shopping
for tourists, an area we can help to develop.
There’s
been an agreement by both Singapore and Algeria to sign two
important business pacts during Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong’s
visit to Algeria. What are your views on these agreements?
GA: These are standard formats that we have with
countries that we work with: avoidance of double tax is something
that business men would look for because it helps them to be more
focused on the investments they want to make and also in terms of
repatriation of profits and it helps to give an impetus to
businessmen on both sides to work more effectively.
What
do you anticipate from Senior Minister Goh’s visit to Tunisia?
GA: If nothing else, I would think that Singapore
business men would no longer ask where Algeria or Tunisia were and
would say that these were places that were worth checking out. I
think that the important thing for Singaporeans is to move out of
their comfort zones into new areas that hold some promise of
business. Once they have been there and seen for themselves, then I
think their business instincts will take over.
And that
was Mr George Abraham, Chairman of the GA Group, speaking to Howie
Lim. |
|
edit2.gif)
