Gulf Times
31st Jan 2008
DOHA: Singapore has sought Qatar’s co-operation in investing in joint ventures in Asia, an engine of global growth, for building a “strategic” partnership between Asian and Middle East economies.
“Going forward, I believe there is much potential for more Qatari and Singapore companies to work together on joint ventures in Asian countries,” Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong yesterday told the Qatar-Singapore Business Forum, jointly organised by Qatari the Businessmen Association and Singapore Business Federation (SBF).
SBF is leading a 35-member delegation, comprising senior representatives from across the sectors including IT, cryogenics, real estate, construction, banking and financial services and ship builders.
Stressing that seeking bilateral opportunities was not the only one dimension of business relationship, Tong, who had been Singapore’s Prime Minister for 14 years until 2004, said another dimension was that cooperation to jointly take advantage in both the Middle East and Asian region.
“(There is) opportunity for a strategic partnership between our two economies,” he said.
Highlighting that China and India together would account for more than 40% of global growth in 2007, he said, “we will be wise to ride of their growth” and added by 2020, Asia’s share of world GDP is expected to be 45%, up from the current 36%.
“This is why we are cautiously optimist that Asia will be able to weather the current turmoil in the global financial markets and the possibility of an economic recession in the US,” Tong said.
Terming Qatar as Singapore’s natural gateway to the Middle East region, where GCC alone has a staggering more than $1tn planned public and private projects over the next six years, the senior minister said Singaporean companies would be keen to work with Qatari companies to explore joint projects within the region.
Finance Minister HE Yousef Hussein Kamal said the total trade between the two countries increased to about $4bn in 2006 from a mere $465mn in 1995.
“We believe that it is still possible to further increase these (trade) numbers to higher levels,” he said.
Qatar and Singapore recently signed a raft of agreements on the fields of economic, commercial and technical co-operation and investments to promote cooperation in areas such as energy, communications, transportation, construction, labour and tourism.
“Definitely, such agreement will enhance bilateral economic and trade relations by further spurring the growing interest by companies in each other’s region,” Kamal said.
Stressing that Qatar has all the basic ingredients needed to attract foreign investments, he said the country looked forward to witnessing further enhancement in this sector.
QBA chairman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani there were lot of opportunities for the private sector in Qatar and Singapore to enter into joint ventures.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=198930&version=1&template_id=48&parent_id=28
