Singapore an 'ideal vantage point' for German firms

SINGAPORE'S considerable economic clout and reach into South-east Asia makes it an ideal vantage point for German companies, visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday.

Following discussions with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shortly after she arrived here, the German leader said she also saw a need to enhance cooperation between the European Union and Asean.

'We see it as a vast potential that has yet to be fully realised,' she said after their hour-long meeting at the Istana.

'The relationship between the EU and Asean needs to be further developed because these are two economic regions that wield quite considerable economic clout and therefore lend themselves ideally to cooperate even more in the future.'

PM Lee, recalling that he was Dr Merkel's first foreign visitor in 2005 when she became Chancellor, said he was pleased to welcome her, in turn, as his first foreign guest following his May 7 re-election.

Dr Merkel arrived from India for a two-day visit, and also called on President S R Nathan and met former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew yesterday.

PM Lee hosted an official dinner in her honour at the Istana last night.

Today, she will deliver the 31st Singapore Lecture, organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. A special orchid hybrid will also be named after her.

PM Lee said they had a 'very good discussion', and added that the visit showed the strength of bilateral relations.

Her visit was also a clear indication of Germany's interest and resolve in strengthening its investments, ties and engagement in South-east Asia and Singapore, he added.

Bilateral trade reached $20.5 billion last year. Germany was thus Singapore's largest trading partner in the EU, just as Singapore was Germany's largest trading partner in Asean.

Some 1,200 German companies are based here and with a considerably high level of direct investment.

During their talks, the two leaders exchanged views on Singapore, Asia and Europe, as well as broader issues of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and financial market regulations.

PM Lee said there was more scope to build on the relationship with Germany, including in areas such as research and development and green technology.

Dr Merkel announced a new exchange programme that will allow scientists to work in research centres on both sides.

An extract from Straits Times Article dated 2 June 2011

Singapore set to overtake HK in size of economy

SINGAPORE'S economy looks set to surpass that of its long-time regional rival Hong Kong this year for the first time.

Powered by a robust Singapore dollar and an exceptionally strong economic rebound last year, the Singapore economy is now the larger of the two, a Bank of America (BoA)Merrill Lynch report showed yesterday.

For the first three months of this year, Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP) was US$63.9 billion (S$79.1 billion), exceeding Hong Kong's US$57.9 billion economy by about 10 per cent.

If this trend continues, Singapore's economy is likely to grow bigger than Hong Kong's for the whole of this year, said BoA's Dr Chua Hak Bin.

'Such a development would have been seen as far-fetched a decade ago, given Hong Kong's geographical advantage, being next to mainland China, against Singapore's more volatile and marginalised neighbourhood,' he said.

Singapore's economy was just half the size of Hong Kong's a decade ago but a combination of factors such as a strong Singapore currency and new engines of growth has propelled the Republic ahead of its rival.

The Singapore dollar has appreciated by some 23.3 per cent against the Hong Kong dollar, which is pegged to the US dollar, over the past 10 years.

Another factor accounting for the shift has been the emergence of new growth engines for Singapore such as high-end manufacturing and the casinos, said Dr Chua.

While Hong Kong did not choose casinos, Singapore's gamble on the integrated resorts has paid off.

Tourism revenue soared to $18.8 billion last year, up 47 per cent from $12.8 billion in 2009. Singapore's gaming market will likely reach $7 billion to $8 billion this year, exceeding the market size of Las Vegas, noted Dr Chua.

Dr Tan Khee Giap, co-director of the Asia Competitiveness Institute at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, also pointed out that a key advantage Singapore has over Hong Kong is its flexibility.

He noted that Singapore has always recovered faster and stronger than Hong Kong whenever both are hit with recessions.

Last year, Singapore rebounded from one of its worst recessions, in 2009, by growing 14.5 per cent, the second fastest rate in the world.

'This is due to the fact that we have tools like exchange rate policies and a pro-active Government which implements innovative policies like Jobs Credit to help the economy recover faster,' he said.

'So it's no surprise that we have caught up with them.'

This achievement is all the more impressive given that Hong Kong does not spend on things like defence, which takes up a significant chunk of the Singapore Government budget, said Dr Tan.

This means that Singapore has come into its own, despite the fact that it does not have mainland China as a hinterland, as Hong Kong does, said Dr Tan.

But OCBC economist Selena Ling cautioned that using GDP as a gauge to compare both is not entirely useful.

She noted that Hong Kong has, for some years, been seen to be part of a sub-set of China while Singapore stands on its own.

'So the models are different and I'm not entirely sure if people still compare the two the way they did in the 1990s,' she said.

Likewise, as a financial hub, Hong Kong's stock market is much larger than Singapore's and the Hong Kong stock exchange has been attracting big name listings in recent years, said Dr Chua.

'On that front, Singapore has some way to go,' he said.

The Straits Times

28 May 2011

Finance Minister Tharman tipped to chair IMF committee

Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is the favourite over South African Pravin Gordhan to head the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), IMF board sources told Reuters.

The finance ministers of Singapore andSouth Africa have emerged as the only contenders to chair the IMF's main advisory committee, the sources said on Tuesday.

They added that an announcement was expected as soon as tomorrow if the fund's managing director, Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn, can narrow the selection to one. Failing that, the outcome will be determined in a secret vote by the IMF board members.

It would be a first time for either an African or Asian country to hold the post.

Several sources said Mr Strauss-Kahn favoured Singapore because of the IMF's recent push to get Asia on its side as the fastest growing part of the world economy.

Mr Strauss-Kahn has also tried in recent months to put the Asian financial crisis finally behind the IMF, whose invasive policy prescriptions have long been blamed in the region for exacerbating the 1997/1998 meltdown.

The IMFC seat was left vacant last month by Mr Youssef Boutros-Ghali, who was replaced as Egypt's finance minister in a Cabinet shake-up amid protests to topple long-time leader Hosni Mubarak.

Mr Domenico Lombardi, a former executive board member at the IMF, said that by choosing Singapore, the IMF would bring Asia further into its fold at a critical time in the global economy, when world finance leaders are focused on overhauling the international monetary system and tackling trade and financial imbalances.

The IMF has just completed a series of reforms to give emerging market economies in Asia and elsewhere a greater say in the institution by boosting their voting power.

Mr Lombardi said Singapore was regarded as a key bridge between East and West, an important factor when it came to addressing tensions between the United States and China over such things as trade imbalances.

'Singapore is uniquely placed to facilitate a dialogue between the US and China,' he added.

On the other hand, if South Africa led the IMFC, it would be a 'great achievement for sub-Saharan Africa', Mr Lombardi said. 'This would go a long way in the long journey initiated by (former IMF chief) Michel Camdessus that sought to make low-income countries regular, fully fledged members of this institution.'

The IMF's advisory committee officially meets twice a year - during the IMF meetings in the spring and autumn - to discuss the direction of the institution. It comprises finance ministers and central bank governors from 24 countries.

The new chairman will take over at a time of heightened uncertainty in the world economy, with protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, and Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Singapore scores in tourism rankings

THE little red dot is shining bright on the world stage again.

For the second time in five years, Singapore's travel and tourism sector has emerged as the 10th most competitive out of 139 economies ranked by a World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

This puts it at the top of theAsia-Pacific region for the first time - ahead of Hong Kong, which came in 12th, and Australia, which fell from 2009's ninth spot to 13th this year.

Despite lacking in human and natural resources, Singapore pulled itself into the top 10 by having top-notch workers and efficient air and ground transport systems.

The report, comprising more than 500 pages, also gave the nation top marks for its safe environment and its rules and regulations which, it said, are conducive to the development of the travel industry.

Switzerland, Germany and France topped the rankings, with Switzerland having stayed in first place since the first report in 2007.

In appraising the 139 countries, the WEF considered 14 areas relating to travel and tourism including policy, rules and regulations, transport infrastructure, and human and natural resources.

NUS ranked 27th in the world by academics

THE National University of Singapore (NUS) has been ranked the 27th best in the world and third best in Asia by academics asked to pick the top universities in their disciplines.

A total of 13,388 experienced academics in 131 countries were asked to rate universities around the world according to how good they thought their research and teaching were.

The results, published yesterday by Britain's Times Higher Education magazine, reveal that US institutions were most highly regarded, taking seven of the top 10 places.

Harvard University was first, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in second place. In total, 45 US universities made it to the global top 100.

Two British universities, Cambridge and Oxford, made it to the top 10 and a dozen more were in the top 100.

Japan's Tokyo University was the only Asian university to make it to the top 10, followed by Kyoto University, at 18th.

All in, Asia had 15 universities in the top 100 table, including Nanyang Technological University (NTU) which was placed in the 91st to 100th band.

NUS president Professor Tan Chorh Chuan said: 'We are delighted to be placed among the best universities in the world by our peers. This latest ranking is a positive affirmation from the international academic community of the world-class quality of education and research being produced at our university.'

NTU's chief planning officer and registrar Chan Kwong Lok said: 'NTU is pleased that despite our short history, globally we stand alongside universities that have centuries worth of research.'

In recent years there has been a proliferation of university league tables, which have become important marketing tools for attracting the best students and academics. But this latest ranking is different in that it measures how universities are regarded, rather than how they actually performed.

Each institution's rank was based on the number of times it was nominated as 'the best' in its field. There were two categories: research and teaching. Research was given twice as much weight as teaching when it came to working out the final score.

外国专业女性 首选移居我国

新加坡是外国女性的首选移居地点，接受调查的外国专业女性一致表示，会介绍他人迁移本地工作。

这主要是因为她们认为我国犯罪率低、有税务优惠、生活优雅以及本区域有许多个人发展的机会。

这项名为“2011年环球专业人士流动性报告”的调查由环球专才招聘公司Hydrogen Group委任ESCP Europe商学院一个咨询小组进行。有2637名来自85个国家，并拥有至少学士文凭的专业人士接受调查。

Hydrogen亚洲区主管Abigail Waudby指出：“新加坡有很强的文化包容性，新来的外国雇员也受到热烈欢迎。我们的女受访者反映，生活方式以及能多快适应环境，对她们来说，重要性不亚于薪金获得提高。”

在总体排名方面，新加坡与加拿大同列第5大最受男女专业人士欢迎的移居地点。榜首是美国，下来依次是英国、澳大利亚和瑞士（Switzerland）。

Singapore flying Asia's flag at GAR arbitration awards

STARS of Singapore's arbitration scene will for the first time compete against the world's best, at the industry's top awards ceremony today.

Their presence at the event illustrates how the Republic has grown into a major global player in the booming industry - which helps firms resolve disputes without going to court.

Singapore is also flying the flag for Asia, as in three of the categories it is the only Asian country represented.

Senior Counsel Michael Hwang is among the seven nominees from around the globe for the arbitrator of the year award, while Rajah Tann's Chong Yee Long is up for advocate of the year.

An arbitrator judges a dispute between two parties while an advocate represents a party.

Mr Hwang and Mr Chong are the only Asian lawyers shortlisted in their respective categories. Also shortlisted is the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), for institution of the year.

And Maxwell Chambers, which is only a few years old, is in the running to receive the award for 'most significant development' of the year because of its recent impact on the industry. It is the only Asian firm nominated in this category.

The inaugural awards event will be held in Seoul, South Korea.

It is hosted by the London-based Global Arbitration Review (GAR), a worldwide industry reference publication. The GAR100 lists the top arbitration firms each year. Local heavyweight Rajah Tann is the only Asian law firm to make it to the list for the last two years.

Maxwell Chambers chief executive Ban Jiun Ean said yesterday that the 'nominations for such prestigious awards show that Singapore is making quite a mark on the international arbitration scene'.

He added: 'It is clear recognition that the standard of international arbitration here is as good as can be found anywhere in the world.'

SIAC chief executive Minn Naing Oo added that the centre has one of the fastest growth rates of any institution in this arena.

The SIAC is up against established giants such as the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce and the London Court of International Arbitration for the institution of the year award.

'The GAR nomination confirms global recognition of SIAC's status as a premier institution and we are proud to have received this accolade,' said Mr Minn.

Mr Hwang, 67, is a former Law Society president and current chief justice of the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Mr Chong, 46, said yesterday: 'Singapore is almost the only flag-holder from Asia for the named categories and it makes me very proud.'

The other Asian flag-holder is Hong Kong. Its International Arbitration Centre was nominated for institution of the year.

Yesterday, Law Minister K. Shanmugam said Singapore's success came from its reputation as a neutral venue and the way the SIAC attracted leading arbitrators from various international jurisdictions, which 'helped to lend depth of expertise'.

The SIAC has also streamlined its rules to 'ensure arbitration cases are resolved effectively and efficiently'.