I heard recently there are calls for Singapore to reduce the
Defence budget. Once such move do happen, it will be the sign of
weakness!
http://militarynuts.com/index.php?showtopic=3206
Maintaining our Defence budget at 5% of GDP is a good model and
should be continued.
Looking at China, "China’s defence budget to rise 12.7 percent,
2011"
China announced a double-digit increase in its secretive
military budget yesterday but insisted the annual outlay of more
than USD 90 billion posed no external threat, despite concern
worldwide.
The defence budget will rise 12.7 percent in 2011 to 601.1
billion yuan (USD 91.7 billion), according to Li Zhaoxing,
spokesman of the national parliament and a former foreign
minister.
He said the figure was contained in a budgetary report submitted
by the Communist Party to the National People’s Congress, which
opens its annual 10-day session today.
“China has always paid attention to controlling the size of
defence spending,” Li told reporters, describing spending as
“relatively low” compared with the rest of the world.
Li, a former foreign minister, said the figure represented six
percent of the total national budget in the world’s second-largest
economy.
The number however represents a return to double-digit
increases, which have alarmed the United States and several of
China’s Asian neighbours. That trend had been broken last year when
the defence budget rose 7.5 percent.
The People’s Liberation Army - the world’s largest - is hugely
secretive about its defence programmes, but insists its
modernisation is purely defensive in nature.
“This will not pose a threat to any country,” Li said.
For Willy Lam, a China analyst at the Chinese University of Hong
Kong, the published military budget - which he said was likely only
one-third to one-half of total spending - will be poured into
next-generation equipment.
“The return to this double-digit PLA budget reflects the growing
power of the PLA,” Lam told AFP. “They are trying to close the gap
with Russia and the United States.”
Experts say the spending hike also reflects a desire to keep the
pressure on Washington, Tokyo and others in the region.
“The Chinese communist leadership needs to increase its military
intimidation of the United States, Taiwan and neighbours like Japan
and India,” said Rick Fisher at the International Assessment and
Strategy Centre in the US.
“Spending increases advance this goal by ensuring that
programmes entering their expensive procurement phase, like
aircraft carriers and nuclear missile submarines, can proceed
without delay,” Fisher told AFP.
While Singapore's Defence Budget - "Singapore raises defense
budget by 5.4% for 2011"
Singapore, which has one of Asia's
best-equipped militaries and ranks high internationally in per
capita defense spending, raised its national defence budget by 5.4
percent, government data showed Friday.
In a recent interview, state founder Lee Kuan Yew justified the
Singapore's defense spending.
Lee said the island state with its population of 5 million
people had to spend 5 to 6 percent of its gross domestic product on
defense to resist any possible pressures from larger neighbors
Indonesia and Malaysia.
“Without a strong defense, there will be no Singapore,” Lee
said.