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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published April 10, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>S'pore needs to create economic space: MM
Predicting which countries will help it grow is a challenge
By EMILYN YAP
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(SINGAPORE) Singapore needs to create economic space, and predicting which countries will help it grow will be a foreign policy challenge, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.
In a question-and-answer session at the S Rajaratnam Lecture organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Lee said: 'We have to try and forecast what are the countries that will help us grow.'
=> And suck up to them, even to the extent of selling out the citizens? So who benefit? Just to perpetuate the power of 1 Familee?
He described how Singapore built ties with China as the latter started growing - by taking part in the development of Suzhou Industrial Park, for instance.
=> Where is our $?
Such efforts have made it easier for local businesses to venture into China, he noted.
=> Sure or not? So what's the ROI? So far the only thing we know is that 1 Familee lost $260B for 1 nation single-handedly!
The Chinese 'know we are straightforward, we've got good systems, good management, and we never cheat and never renege on our contracts.
=> Long for "naive"!
And so we have 10,000 investments, separate investments in China'.
But also because of the economic ties, 'we have to think very carefully before we vote against them on a real issue, on an issue which is their core interest,' he highlighted.
=> Same question - ROI, please! Not ROE (Return on Ego) hor!
China's strength is currently in the economic sphere and it is not keen to change the world order now, Mr Lee also said.
'What they want is minimum disruption in the status quo as they rise as a major economic, and concurrently, diplomatic and a military force,' he explained.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Nevertheless, China will guard certain interests strongly, such as its control over Tibet, he observed.
Asked how external relations helped Singapore survive and grow in the early years of its independence, Mr Lee said candidly that diplomacy had in fact worked against the country.
'In foreign relations, there's no personal friendships,' he said. 'It's your national interest. And every ministry of foreign affairs has the institutionalised axioms - back the winner - and they expected us to be the loser.
'We had to prove to them, demonstrate beyond doubt that we are not going to be losers, we are going to stay.'
=> We = 1 Familee?
In his earlier speech on the fundamentals of Singapore's foreign policy, Mr Lee also stressed that a 'sound foreign policy requires a prime minister and a foreign minister who are able to discern future trends in the international political, security and economic environment'.
A small country must also seek the maximum number of friends while maintaining the freedom to stay independent, Mr Lee said.
Importantly, Singapore must make itself relevant so that other countries have an interest in its survival and prosperity as an independent nation, he said.
Mr Lee also predicted that US-China ties will become the world's most important bilateral relationship in the later part of this century.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>S'pore needs to create economic space: MM
Predicting which countries will help it grow is a challenge
By EMILYN YAP
<TABLE class=storyLinks cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>



(SINGAPORE) Singapore needs to create economic space, and predicting which countries will help it grow will be a foreign policy challenge, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.
In a question-and-answer session at the S Rajaratnam Lecture organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Lee said: 'We have to try and forecast what are the countries that will help us grow.'
=> And suck up to them, even to the extent of selling out the citizens? So who benefit? Just to perpetuate the power of 1 Familee?
He described how Singapore built ties with China as the latter started growing - by taking part in the development of Suzhou Industrial Park, for instance.
=> Where is our $?
Such efforts have made it easier for local businesses to venture into China, he noted.
=> Sure or not? So what's the ROI? So far the only thing we know is that 1 Familee lost $260B for 1 nation single-handedly!
The Chinese 'know we are straightforward, we've got good systems, good management, and we never cheat and never renege on our contracts.
=> Long for "naive"!
And so we have 10,000 investments, separate investments in China'.
But also because of the economic ties, 'we have to think very carefully before we vote against them on a real issue, on an issue which is their core interest,' he highlighted.
=> Same question - ROI, please! Not ROE (Return on Ego) hor!
China's strength is currently in the economic sphere and it is not keen to change the world order now, Mr Lee also said.
'What they want is minimum disruption in the status quo as they rise as a major economic, and concurrently, diplomatic and a military force,' he explained.
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Asked how external relations helped Singapore survive and grow in the early years of its independence, Mr Lee said candidly that diplomacy had in fact worked against the country.
'In foreign relations, there's no personal friendships,' he said. 'It's your national interest. And every ministry of foreign affairs has the institutionalised axioms - back the winner - and they expected us to be the loser.
'We had to prove to them, demonstrate beyond doubt that we are not going to be losers, we are going to stay.'
=> We = 1 Familee?
In his earlier speech on the fundamentals of Singapore's foreign policy, Mr Lee also stressed that a 'sound foreign policy requires a prime minister and a foreign minister who are able to discern future trends in the international political, security and economic environment'.
A small country must also seek the maximum number of friends while maintaining the freedom to stay independent, Mr Lee said.
Importantly, Singapore must make itself relevant so that other countries have an interest in its survival and prosperity as an independent nation, he said.
Mr Lee also predicted that US-China ties will become the world's most important bilateral relationship in the later part of this century.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>