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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published October 8, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>PM Lee asked in Japan: Which industries will you promote?
Govt will focus on business-friendly, low-tax environment instead, he replies
By CHEW XIANG
IN TOKYO
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RATHER than targeting specific growth industries, the government will focus on maintaining a business- friendly, low-tax environment, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>In good company: Mr Lee (right) with the president of the business grouping Keidanren yesterday </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Mr Lee, who is in Japan on a four-day working visit, said Japanese businessmen had asked him which industries the Singapore government was keen to promote. 'My answer is, we can't tell for sure,' he said. 'We make some broad bets like biotechnology, IT and digital media, but what we need to do is to have an overall low-tax environment, and high-skilled people who are working hard.'
Yesterday Mr Lee met Fujio Mitarai, president of the Keidanren, Japan's powerful business lobby, at their newly built offices, and also hosted a number of entrepreneurs to lunch.
'I think it's fair to say they are concerned about the Japanese economy. It's stabilised but they are not sure where it will go. Also, they are watching to see how the new Japanese government's policies work out . . . and how it will impact them,' PM Lee said.
He added that the Japanese businessmen appreciated Singapore's business- friendly environment. 'Some of them explicitly told me that 'your corporate tax is 18 per cent, and that is a big reason why we are happy to be in Singapore'.'
Japan invested US$3.2 billion in Singapore in 2007 and 2008, according to data from the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro). Singapore invested some US$4 billion in Japan in those two years.
Mr Lee added that the businessmen he met were confident of Singapore's economic progress. 'In the short term, they have confidence in our economy. In the long term, they want to know what our plans are. We have an economic strategies committee - I was asked several times about this.'
The PM noted that another area of concern was how Singapore was balancing its short-term priority to encourage companies to retain workers, and its long- term goal of building a workforce with the skills and expertise for new industrial sectors, such as research and biotechnology.
'The restructuring of the economy has to be allowed to take place,' Mr Lee said. 'They see in Singapore a pro-business, friendly environment - one where it's easy for them to start up and where they can get the resources they need, and one where they can get the contacts to do business all over Asia.
'They are well disposed towards our policies and we will take care to look after them so that they will continue to invest and create jobs.
'(Pro-business measures) may appear abstract to Singaporeans, but to business people it means dollars and cents and the ability to get work done, and therefore to come and employ Singaporeans,' Mr Lee said.
Yesterday, the prime minister also met leading politicians from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) - now in opposition after a sweeping general election defeat in August - and dined with ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) politicians in the evening. He also met Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.
Mr Lee, who was accompanied on the trip by his wife Ho Ching, Foreign Minister George Yeo, Minister in Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua, two Members of Parliament and senior officials.
He is expected to fly home today but that may be complicated by Typhoon Melor, which is expected to hit Japan some time today with sustained winds of some 160 km/h. Reports say the typhoon could be the worst to hit the country in a decade.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>PM Lee asked in Japan: Which industries will you promote?
Govt will focus on business-friendly, low-tax environment instead, he replies
By CHEW XIANG
IN TOKYO
<TABLE class=storyLinks border=0 cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right></TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right></TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>RATHER than targeting specific growth industries, the government will focus on maintaining a business- friendly, low-tax environment, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>In good company: Mr Lee (right) with the president of the business grouping Keidanren yesterday </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Mr Lee, who is in Japan on a four-day working visit, said Japanese businessmen had asked him which industries the Singapore government was keen to promote. 'My answer is, we can't tell for sure,' he said. 'We make some broad bets like biotechnology, IT and digital media, but what we need to do is to have an overall low-tax environment, and high-skilled people who are working hard.'Yesterday Mr Lee met Fujio Mitarai, president of the Keidanren, Japan's powerful business lobby, at their newly built offices, and also hosted a number of entrepreneurs to lunch.
'I think it's fair to say they are concerned about the Japanese economy. It's stabilised but they are not sure where it will go. Also, they are watching to see how the new Japanese government's policies work out . . . and how it will impact them,' PM Lee said.
He added that the Japanese businessmen appreciated Singapore's business- friendly environment. 'Some of them explicitly told me that 'your corporate tax is 18 per cent, and that is a big reason why we are happy to be in Singapore'.'
Japan invested US$3.2 billion in Singapore in 2007 and 2008, according to data from the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro). Singapore invested some US$4 billion in Japan in those two years.
Mr Lee added that the businessmen he met were confident of Singapore's economic progress. 'In the short term, they have confidence in our economy. In the long term, they want to know what our plans are. We have an economic strategies committee - I was asked several times about this.'
The PM noted that another area of concern was how Singapore was balancing its short-term priority to encourage companies to retain workers, and its long- term goal of building a workforce with the skills and expertise for new industrial sectors, such as research and biotechnology.
'The restructuring of the economy has to be allowed to take place,' Mr Lee said. 'They see in Singapore a pro-business, friendly environment - one where it's easy for them to start up and where they can get the resources they need, and one where they can get the contacts to do business all over Asia.
'They are well disposed towards our policies and we will take care to look after them so that they will continue to invest and create jobs.
'(Pro-business measures) may appear abstract to Singaporeans, but to business people it means dollars and cents and the ability to get work done, and therefore to come and employ Singaporeans,' Mr Lee said.
Yesterday, the prime minister also met leading politicians from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) - now in opposition after a sweeping general election defeat in August - and dined with ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) politicians in the evening. He also met Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.
Mr Lee, who was accompanied on the trip by his wife Ho Ching, Foreign Minister George Yeo, Minister in Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua, two Members of Parliament and senior officials.
He is expected to fly home today but that may be complicated by Typhoon Melor, which is expected to hit Japan some time today with sustained winds of some 160 km/h. Reports say the typhoon could be the worst to hit the country in a decade.
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