SG: SIF News #81 20-13 Aug 1993(fwd)
Kent Mulliner
Date: 17-Aug-1993 07:41pm EST
To: Southeast Asia Listers ( _MX%"SEAS...@MSU.EDU" )
From: Kent Mulliner Dept: Library
MULLINER Tel No: 614-593-2707
Subject: SG: SIF News #81 20-13 Aug 1993(fwd)
Received: 17-Aug-1993 07:41pm
Subject: Issue #81: 10 Aug - 13 Aug 1993
SINGAPORE DAZE
++++++++++++++
A twice weekly bulletin featuring local news snippets from
Singapore publications. Issue #81: 10 Aug - 13 Aug 1993.
****************************************************************
1. >SINGAPORE'S 28TH NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATIONS<
2. >10.1% ECONOMIC GROWTH BROAD BASED<
3. >PRESIDENT'S SCHOLARS<
4. >$5M SALES IN FIRST 4 DAYS OF TAKASHIMAYA<
5. >TOMMY KOH TO HEAD UN TEAM ON RUSSIAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL<
6. >SINGAPORE II INDUSTRIAL TOWN IN SUZHOU<
*****************************************************************
1. >SINGAPORE'S 28TH NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATIONS<
ST Aug 10 - Singaporeans celebrated the nation's 28th year of
independence and national sovereignty at the Padang on the
evening of Aug 9. This year's celebrations--called A Nation On
Parade--was informal. No tanks, military hardware or thunderous
bands. Rather, the people took part: primary school bands,
athletes in wheelchairs, youths doing martial arts, Ang Peng
Siong taking his farewell bow with other SEA Games athletes.
Following the SAF marchpast, the spectators, dressed in
colour-coded T-shirts of purple, pink, green, orange, yellow, and
blue, streamed onto the padang and marched past President Wee Kim
Wee and the Members of Parliament. One exuberant spectator even
tried throwing President Wee a flag, for whom this is his last
parade as President. "The most moving part was the people on
parade. It was spontaneous and charged with emotion," he said.
Singing national songs and smiling, the crowd streamed to
marina bay in the vesper light, and watched dragon boats and
water skiers in the darkening waters. Then the fireworks went
off--high ones this year that could be seen from around the
island.
----------------------------------------------------------------
2. >10.1% ECONOMIC GROWTH BROAD BASED<
ST Aug 11 - The strong 10.1% growth in the second quarter--the
highest in three years--was unlikely to overheat the economy,
said a MTI spokesperson. MTI has raised its growth forecast for
this year from 7.5 % to 8%.
Growth was fuelled by expansion in the manufacturing and
financial & business services, which grew by 11.5% and 11.4%
respectively. Manufacturing's growth was boosted by a 24.6%
growth in the electronics industry, while financial services rose
by 19.6%. The other main sectors--commerce, construction and
transport and communications--expanded by 9.1%, 10% and 9.2%
respectively.
Some however expressed reservations. Mr Tan Ee Khoon,
research head at Summit Securities, said that although the region
was doing well, it could not totally discount the fact that the
Western economies were still in a recession, and that this might
dampen the Singapore economy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
3. >PRESIDENT'S SCHOLARS<
ST. Aug 11- Lionel Cheng Tim-Ee, 19; Evelyn Goh Chui Ling, 18 and
Karen Lam Jr-Earn, 19 were awarded this year's President's
Scholarships. Lionel was from the National Junior College, while
Evelyn and Karen were both humanities scholars at Hwa Chong.
ECA leadership was what won them their awards--apart from
the regular excellence in academics. Lionel, who is now studying
medicine at NUS had presided over the student's council and sat
on the committees of some seven clubs. Evelyn, who will read
geography at Jesus College Oxford had won the 1993 Angus Ross
prize for literature, and was a school swimmer and squash player.
Karen, who co-hosts the SBC programme Vibes was a leader of
various performance groups while in school.
----------------------------------------------------------------
4. >$5M SALES IN FIRST 4 DAYS OF TAKASHIMAYA<
ST. AUG 12 - Giant shopping centre (largest in South East Asia)
Takashimaya, which opened 8 Aug in Ngee Ann City has been
chalking a daily average of $1.25m in sales. Female shoppers
were out in force, where the most popular sales items were
ladies' accessories and fashion wear. 1700 mothers, mothers-to-
be and children had signed up for its Little Ones' Club, which
is a children's club set up by the store's Children and Babies
department.
Similarly, the Takashimaya Fitness Club had 700 members
admitted in its first-phase membership drive. Membership is
closed for now due to overwhelming response.
Some, however, have wondered how Takashimaya can sustain its
projected $300 million sales forecast, given that that amount is
already a quarter of Singapore's annual retail turnover. As one
analyst said, "Singapore is such a tiny place, where is the
additional market going to come from?"
----------------------------------------------------------------
5. >TOMMY KOH TO HEAD UN TEAM ON RUSSIAN TROOP WITHDRAWAL<
ST. Aug 13 - Singapore's Ambassador at large Tommy Koh, who was
Singapore's Ambassador to the UN 1074-1984 and to the US 1984-
1990 has been asked by UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali to head
a world body mission to help speed up Russian troop withdrawal
from the Baltic States. His two week mission will take him to
Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Prof Koh, who now heads the Institute of Policy Studies in
Singapore, admits that he has not had much experience in Russian
affairs. "But perhaps it's precisely because of this that I
would be acceptable to all four governments, because I have no
predilections or prejudices. I think they felt that I'd done a
lot of negotiating before and I could try my skills at trying to
help this case," he said.
The government has agreed that he should accept his
appointment as it was in line with Singapore's policy of making
itself "useful to the world."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
6. >SINGAPORE II INDUSTRIAL TOWN IN SUZHOU<
ST. Aug 13 - A government-back 18-member local consortium, led
by the Keppel group will develop jointly with Chinese partners
a 70 sq km township in Suzhou, comprising industrial parks,
residential estates and commercial facilities. Total investments
could come up to S$30billion.
The project, dubbed "Singapore II" will be run Singapore-
style on a "reliable, efficient and transparent basis," said Mr
Sim Kee Boon, chairman-designate of the consortium. "It will
serve as an economic model for the Chinese so they do not have
to come out here all the time," he added.
Yesterday's announcement ended months of speculation as to
which location--Shandong province or Suzhou City--would be the
site chosen for the Singapore-style township.