http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5306741
Singapore, Jul 21 (PTI) Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
today said the city state is hoping to strengthen its trade links
with South Asia, citing the success of its ties with India.
Addressing more than 600 delegates at the inaugural South Asian
Diaspora Convention, Lee said Singapore''s 2005 Comprehensive
Economic Cooperation Agreement have boosted bilateral trade with
India to 30 billion dollars last year.
Bilateral and regional trade would increase as India prospers, said
Lee, noting the Indians were to have a regional Free Trade
Agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN).
He highlighted Singapore as having the potential for relationship
growth with the rest of South Asia as these countries stabilise and
grow.
Singapore is well positioned to be springboard for South Asian
diaspora to engage the rest of the world as it was located at
crossroads of trade, talent and capital flows, he stressed.
Lee also noted the economic strength of the 50 million South Asian
diaspora, with the Indians remitting 50 billion dollars in 2010 and
Pakistanis remitting 8 billion dollars a year to their home
country.
The Singapore premier also encouraged the South Asian diaspora to
continue its partnership with Singapore and the rest of Asia.
The two-day convention, organised by the Institute of South Asian
Studies (ISAS) of Singapore opened today with speakers deliberating
on greater economic integration within South Asia.
Setting the tone of presentations, ISAS chairman Gopinath Pillai
said the greater South Asian economic integration would be good not
only for the region but for the whole of Asia and the world.
"For centuries, the world has come to know of South Asia and its
diversities, through the region''s most significant export: its
people," said Pillai.