Features, Opinion & Analysis
Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong’s interview with RIA Novosti
Topic: APEC summit in Singapore
Lee Hsien Loong
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Q: “What does the first-ever visit of the Russian President to the Republic of Singapore mean for your state?”
Mr Lee: “It is a very significant milestone for our relationship. We have cultivated our relations with Russia over many years. There have been many exchanges of visits at different levels, including ministers’ visits, but this is the first time that the President of Russia is visiting Singapore. So, we are very much looking forward to it.”
Q: “The Russian Federation and the Republic of Singapore seem to be very different in almost every aspect. One is the largest country in the world and the other one is one of the smallest ones, one is cold and snowy and the other one is hot and humid, etc. And yet, relations between our two countries lately seem to be developing very fast. Could it be because Russia and the Republic of Singapore are mutually complementary to each other?”
Mr Lee: “I think there are opportunities for us to work together. We may be very different in scale and size and location, even in outlook on the world, but there is opportunity to work together because we welcome Russia to come to Asia, to our part of the world, to trade, to invest, to visit, do business. We think that through Singapore Russian companies, Russian tourists, Russian business people can gain an entry into the Asian region because we are an environment which you will be comfortable to operate in and you can use us as a base to operate throughout Asia.
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“On the other side, there are opportunities in Russia for Singaporean companies: to invest, to do business with, to trade with. There are infrastructure projects like airports, there are other projects like special economic zones. There are also cooperation opportunities outside of business, for example, research and development, for example, cultural links, for example, links with your business schools, like the Skolkovo School, which are our Minister Mentor is on the Board of Advisers of. So, I think that being different does not mean we cannot work together. In fact, it means there are more opportunities where we can complement one another’s different characteristics.”
Q: “Can you give some examples of the latest developments in the mutually beneficent cooperation between our two countries?”
Mr Lee: “We have a double-tax agreement which has been signed, I think it has now been ratified. Recently, we had a Russian business forum in Singapore which had several hundred Russian business people come here and network with Singaporean business people as well as people from the region - Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and that was a great success. As I said earlier, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has just visited Moscow and he was at the Skolkovo School again and also, we have relationships between Keppel and Sembawang, which are our oil rig builders, supporting and supplying Russian oil exploration companies. So, I think there is quite a broad-based relationship.”
Q: “Can you give us more details, such as general trade, investment and finance, tourists, transport and specifically, air transport, logistics and infrastructure and science and technology?”
Mr Lee: “We have items on all those areas. I think what we would like to see is that Russia enhances its links, not just with Singapore, but through Singapore, its links with Asean, and more broadly with the Asia-Pacific region, but I think Asean is a good focus and Singapore is a natural centre for that.”
Q: “Singapore is also acting as a consultant for special economic zones for Russia. What can your government teach us in this area?
Mr Lee: “Our circumstances are very different. So, we would be hesitant to say we can teach another country, but we have some experience building special economic zones, building industrial infrastructure, industrial estates, in fact, townships, not just the hardware of the city layout and the services and utilities and the factory buildings, but also the software, the governance of the industrial park, how you can attract investments in, how you have to manage the investments so that they will have a good experience and they will continue to invest and continue to create jobs for your people in the country.
So, on that basis, we have an MOU with Russia and I think under this MOU, we have had quite a number of Russian officials come to Singapore for exposure, for attachments to understand how we operate in these key areas, investment promotion, estate management of the industrial park, development of the industrial park and we hope that something of what we do will be relevant in Russia’s very different circumstances.
But it is up to the Russian officials and the Russian Government to decide what you think is relevant and how perhaps what we have might be adapted to your circumstances.”
Q: “What about political cooperation between our countries?”
Mr Lee: “Political cooperation – we work together in Apec, of course, and we have bilateral visits, our Minister Mentor has visited, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has also visited Russia. Foreign Minister George Yeo has also visited Russia, I think, just this year and on the other side, your Foreign Minister has visited and your President is coming. So, I think that there are exchanges and we should continue to intensify and deepen them.”
Q: The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has recently expressed his gratitude to Singapore authorities for their help to a Russian Orthodox church in Singapore. Is there any other religious cooperation between our countries?
Mr Lee: “Well, I think the Russian Orthodox Church would very much like to build a church in Singapore and we would like to welcome that because it would be marvellous if in Singapore, in the middle of the tropics, we have an Orthodox church with golden onion domes, like you have in St Basil’s Cathedral and in the Red Square and all over the Russian countryside. We have told the Russian Government we would like to be helpful and we will do our best to see what we can do to make this happen.”
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Q: “One of the few instances where Russia and Singapore are similar is that both countries are are multiethnic and multicultural. So what about cultural cooperation between us?
Mr Lee: “We have visits. I think we have got visits from your orchestras, from your ballets, from your performing groups. It has been a long time since a Russian circus has visited recently, but we also would like to have cooperation between our institutes of higher learning, our educational centres and in research and development and I think that our institutions are in touch with yours and there are certain projects which are already under way.”
Q: “Prime Minister, you mentioned just now a recent visit of Minister Mentor to Russia when he agreed to become a member or the trustees of the Business School of Management at Skolkovo. But are there any Russians currently studying in Singapore universities - and vice versa?”
Mr Lee: “There are a few dozen students in the universities and a few even in our schools. We hope that as the Russian population here grows, the number of students who are here will also increase because the families will grow. But we also hope that we will have more exchange visitors, students who are coming to spend a semester or two in our universities and our students can also spend a term or two in your universities and we get to know each other and we enrich each other’s educational experience.”
Q: “First of all maybe there is something you yourself would like to tell to Russian people?”
Mr Lee: “Well, we would like Russia to pay an active interest in the Asia-Pacific region and particularly in the Southeast Asian region. I think your main population mass is in Europe. A lot of your preoccupation is your relations with European countries, near abroad, of course, but also with EU and NATO.
But in the Far East, there are many opportunities for trade, for visits for exchanges and the Far East is prospering. We used to have bananas and lemon trees. We still try and keep Singapore a clean and green and beautiful garden city with waters and plants, but at the same time, it’s a vibrant cosmopolitan city which has people from all over the world and which is constantly transforming itself because the whole region is doing so and so are we. And we would like Russians also to come and to visit. Right now, we have maybe about 50,000 Russian visitors a year, but considering your population, I think even ten times that number would not be too many.”
By RIA Novosti's Mikhail Tsyganov in Istana (Singapore Presidential Palace)
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