Singapore Newsbriefs Feb 29
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Reuter, Singapore, Feb 29 - Singapore, already home to a thriving
young aviation industry, wants to become a regional and comprehensive
centre for Asia's growing aerospace activity, Deputy Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong said today.
"Singapore aims to become a one-stop centre for aerospace
activities," Lee said in a speech opening the week-long Asian Aerospace
trade show here hosting 1,100 industry companies.
In Singapore's case, joint ventures in manufacture of aircraft parts
and components had led to both extensive transfer of technology and
upgrading of existing abilities.
The tiny but prosperous Southeast Asian island state hosts some 60
international aerospace companies. The government said in December that
industry output grew about 10 pct in 1991 to 1.3 billion Singapore dlrs
(790 mln U.S. Dlrs).
Singapore's home-grown aerospace and arms industry centres on
state-owned conglomerate Singapore Technologies, which divides its many
subsidiaries into industrial, aerospace, ordnance and marine divisions.
Its Singapore Aerospace unit, which makes aircraft components,
performs maintenance and upgrades commercial and military planes, had
sales of 154 mln Singapore dlrs (94 mln U.S. Dlrs) in the year ending
last June against 94 mln (57 mln U.S.) a year earlier.
Other Singapore Technologies units make munitions, light machine
guns, patrol boats, howitzers and the AMX tank.
The company's engineers constantly upgrade the technology of the
local armed forces, the latest example being a squadron of 20 A-4 Super
Skyhawk jet fighters with advanced local avionics and engine
improvements announced on Sunday.
Reuter, Singapore, Valerie Lee, Feb 24 - A green trade exhibition
in Singapore featured a huge sticking plaster for leaking oil tankers --
known as the tanker tourniquet -- and, as a last resort, man-made enzymes
that eat oil slicks.
Manufacturers, suppliers and sales agents, some new to the business
of environmental products, were hoping the show would tap a burgeoning
regional market for green goods.
Buyers ranged from regional zoos to oil companies.
As well as the oil-eating compounds and the new tanker tourniquet,
there were filter systems, safety breathing apparatus and air quality
analysers on display.
The show ran in conjunction with the ASEAN ministerial meeting on
the environment here last week.
Singapore, which considers itself the most successful green city in
ASEAN, last year released a Green Master Plan designed to make the
island state southeast Asia's environmental centre and a base of
operations for green industries in the region.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 26 - Singapore's flourishing economy,
enjoying one of Asia's highest per capita personal incomes and savings
rates, is likely to grow at a slower pace this year because of weakness
in its major overseas markets.
The Trade and Industry Ministry's 1991 Economic Survey said it
expected gross domestic product (GDP) to slow to between an
inflation-adjusted five and seven pct this year.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 26 - Most Singapore manufacturers expect no
change over the next six months in the bleak business outlook.
The manufacturing sector recorded growth of 5.3 pct in 1991 against
9.5 pct in 1990, due to a slowdown in the disk drive, transport
equipment and petroleum products industries.
Sixty-eight pct of manufacturers polled saw no change in the
business situation for the first half of 1992.
"Excluding the negative sentiment expressed in the same period last
year due to the Gulf crisis, this is the most pessimistic outlook since
the first quarter of 1986," it said.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 26 - Singapore's competitiveness relative to
the other Asian newly industrialising economies of South Korea, Taiwan
and Hong Kong declined further in 1991 due to increasing labour costs
and the strength of the Singapore dollar, the Trade and Industry
Ministry said.
The relative unit labour cost in the manufacturing sector rose by
6.8 pct in 1991 while productivity grew by 3.4 pct against 4.6 in 1990,
the ministry's fourth-quarter economic survey said.
The ministry said Singapore continued to enjoy full employment, with
total employment growing by 64,000 in 1991 against 60,100 a year
earlier.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 26 - Singapore's Labour Ministry said on
Wednesday that an increase in taxes on foreign workers would stand
despite an outcry from local employers.
Singapore's booming economy suffers from serious labour shortages,
particularly in the building, marine and retail sectors.
From April 1 the levy on employing a foreign domestic worker rises
to 300 Singapore dollars (183 U.S.) a month from 250 dollars (152 U.S.).
The tax on unskilled building workers will increase to 400 dollars (244
U.S.) from 350 (213 U.S.) from July 1.
"The present revision of the foreign maid levy is brought about by
the more than 20 per cent increase in the number of foreign maids in
1991," the ministry said in a statement.
It said tax relief for employed married women effectively reduced
the levy on domestic help and therefore the tax did not contradict the
government's policy of encouraging married women to work.
Out of Singapore's total workforce of 1.3 million more than 200,000
are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Indian
subcontinent.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 27 - Singapore's parliament on Thursday
toughened already stiff anti-smoking laws by doubling fines and
requiring building managers to evict smokers.
Under a bill approved by parliament, smoking in specified public
places and public vehicles will be an offence punishable with a fine of
up to 1,000 Singapore dollars (610 U.S.), double the maximum amount
under current laws.
The fine will also be imposed if a manager of a specified building
or an operator of a public vehicle allows people to smoke.
"The manager or operator is also duty-bound to seek the assistance
of a police officer or a public health officer if the smoker refuses to
leave the premises or vehicle," the bill said.
Singapore, which recently implemented a controversial ban on the
import, sale and manufacture of chewing gum, has staged official
campaigns to turn the island-republic into a nation of non-smokers.
Currently, it is an offence to smoke in air-conditioned restaurants,
department stores, snooker parlours, bowling alleys, cinemas and
theatres, public lifts, taxis and buses, hospitals and fast food
restaurants.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 27 - Singapore's parliament passed a bill on
Thursday to let foreign lawyers appear in international arbitration
cases here.
Home Affairs Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar said the bill would enable
the Singapore International Arbitration Centre to be as competitive as
other regional centres and boost the country's status as an
international trading and business centre.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 27 - Former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan
Yew will visit Pakistan from February 28 to March 6 at the invitation of
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Lee stepped down as prime minister in November 1990 and now has the
title of Senior Minister.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 26 - The end of the Soviet military threat
and a reduction in U.S. military presence overseas means Southeast Asia
must forge stronger defence ties, Singapore Defence Minister Yeo Ning
Hong said on Wednesday.
In a speech opening the first Asia-Pacific Defence Conference Yeo
said the end of the Cold War was to the benefit of developed countries
far more than developing ones.
"For the countries in Southeast Asia, the end of the Cold war also
has some negative consequences."
Yeo said the pullout of U.S. naval and air forces from their
long-time regional base in the Philippines at the end of this year
created a need for security cooperation.
"Initial euphoria that the end of the Cold War would bring about
universal peace has given way to a new realism that threats to peace
remain," Yeo said. "Future conflicts are likely to be ethnic in nature,
and in the Third World."
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 28 - Singapore's Chief of Defence Force
Lieutenant-General Winston Choo will retire on June 30, the Ministry of
Defence said on Friday.
Choo, who has held the Southeast Asian state's top military post
since 1974, will be succeeded by the present Chief of Army, Major
General Ng Jui Ping.
Choo, whose retirement had been expected, will take up two senior
government positions on July 1, the ministry said.
He will become deputy chairman of the Central Provident Fund, the
government social security scheme, and chairman of the Board of
Chartered Industries of Singapore, ordnance arm of the state-owned
Singapore Technologies group.
Reuter, Singapore, Moon Ihlwan, Feb 28 - Singapore Finance Minister
Richard Hu, facing a slowing economy and rising production costs, announced
a string of tax relief measures on Friday intended to boost business activity.
He unveiled a package of selective tax relief ranging from corporate
tax cuts and tax breaks for traders dealing in the rubber futures market
to personal income tax rebates and tax incentives for reservists.
Hu proposed cutting corporate income tax to 30 per cent from 31 per
cent, saying this was aimed at helping to maintain Singapore as an
attractive investment centre and offsetting some of the business cost
increases of the past year.
The proposal is subject to a review by President Wee Kim Wee within
30 days.
The 1992/93 budget, projecting a 1.04 billion dollar (634 million
U.S.) surplus, is the first since parliament in November passed a bill
vesting in the president wider powers regarding spending of national
reserves.
The bill, now law, empowers the president to veto any budget if it
is likely to draw on reserves which were not accumulated by the
government. Hu said reserves were not touched.
Economists said the biggest threat to stable production costs came
from wage rises caused by a tight labour market.
The unemployment rate stood at 1.9 per cent in June 1991, against
the three per cent widely regarded by many countries as full employment.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 28 - The Singapore government will raise
direct development expenditure by 50 pct to 2.7 billion Singapore dlrs
for fiscal 1992-93 ending March, finance minister Richard Hu said.
He told parliament, unveiling his 1992-93 budget, money will be
spent on land reclamation, new health clinics and a health institute and
redevelopment of major hospitals.
It will also spend money to build two new prisons, more civil
defence shelters and more schools. Other projects include road
buildings, sewage works and the development of parks, Hu said.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 28 - Singapore Finance Minister Richard Hu
said the government will make annual contributions from its budget
surplus to improve education and medical facilities in the island state.
"If there is no budget surplus, no money will be put aside," he said
while presenting the 1992/93 budget in parliament.
Out of fiscal 1992/93 starting April 1, the government will allocate
one billion Singapore dlrs to start off its Edusave scheme, he said.
"Government will also allocate money for Medifund, when the proposal is
firmed up," he said.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 28 - A Malaysian man convicted of drug
trafficking was hanged at Singapore's Changi Prison on Friday, the
Singapore Broadcasting Corporation said.
Tan Toon Hock, 47, was arrested in 1984 and convicted in 1988 of
trafficking in 422 grams (about 15 ounces) of heroin.
Singapore has a mandatory death penalty for those convicted of
trafficking in more than 15 grams (half an ounce) of heroin or 30 grams
(one ounce) of morphine.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 28 - Singapore, alarmed by a growing number
of AIDS cases, will punish AIDS virus carriers with up to two years in
jail if they have sex without warning their partners of possible
infection.
A bill passed by parliament late on Thursday makes it a crime for
AIDS victims and HIV virus carriers to have sex with partners who have
no knowlege of their condition.
It calls for a maximum penalty of two years in jail, a 10,000 dollar
(6,100 U.S.) fine, or both.
A total of 111 people in Singapore are known to be infected with the
HIV virus, which leads to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS),
the Health Ministry said.
The ministry estimates there are five to 10 undetected AIDS virus
carriers for every known victim.
The number of new cases is accelerating.
A two-year jail sentence will be imposed on those found guilty of
donating blood knowing they carry the killer virus.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 27 - Singapore on Thursday introduced a bill
empowering the government to seize the proceeds from drug trafficking.
The bill also makes it an offence to launder money derived from drug
trafficking.
On conviction of an offender the High Court will impose a
confiscation order on assets derived from the crime, a statement
accompanying the bill said.
It said the Banking Act would be amended to give investigators
access to accounts of traffickers.
Singapore has a mandatory death penalty for those convicted of
trafficking in more than 15 grammes (half an ounce) of heroin or 30
grammes (one ounce) of morphine.
Reuter, Singapore, Feb 28 - Singapore will not artificially weaken
the local currency despite calls by exporters for measures to improve
their international competitiveness, Finance Minister Richard Hu said on
Friday.
"One has to careful that we do not overuse or try to overuse
exchange rate as a form of stimulus for exports," Hu told a television
programme hours after he presented the budget for the 1992/93 fiscal
year beginning in April.
The Singapore dollar, quoted at 1.64 to the U.S. Dollar on Friday,
gained 6.1 pct in value against the U.S. unit since the beginning of
1991.
Reuter, Bangkok, Feb 29 - A Singaporean soldier was killed and 43
injured when a bus overturned near a Thai military training camp west of
Bangkok.
The Singaporeans, on an exercise at the camp, were being taken to
see a floating market when the accident happened on Friday, police said.
The bus jumped a curve and overturned about 150 km (93 miles) west
of Bangkok.
Five were seriously injured and sent to a Bangkok military hospital.
AFP, Singapore, Feb 26 - Singapore Defence Minister Yeo Ning Hong warned
Wednesday of the dangers of regional rearmament and confrontation if the
United States pulls out its forces from the Asia-Pacific region.
Yeo, speaking at the opening of a three-day Asia Pacific defence
conference, said a U.S. pull-back might compel Japan to rearm to safeguard its
trade routes "beyond the 1,000 nautical miles south of Tokyo."
"This could in turn prompt the Chinese and the Koreans, who have not
forgotten the past atrocities inflicted on their people, to build up their
respective armed forces to counter and contain any Japanese rearmament," he
said.
Yeo said a whole chain of destabilisation could follow and warned, "in
such a situation there will be no winner."
He added, "It is therefore in the interest of all countries in
Asia-Pacific, including Japan and the United States, to see that the United
States remains engaged in the region -- economically, politically and
militarily."