13/11/2009
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.
“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.”
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)
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20091113/156817952.html
