Western Australian Singapore Business Council 

The President and the Executive Committee wishes all our members a very safe and happy Christmas and New Year ....

35^th Singapore National Day Dinner & Dance Held on the 11^th of August 2000 at Hyatt Regency Hotel, Perth. by The President, Mrs. Cecilia Wee

The Honourable Mr. Simon O’Brien, MLC for the South Metropolitan Region, representing Richard Court, the premier of WA.

 Mr. Eric Ripper, member of Belmont and Deputy Leader of the opposition.

 Mr. Tian Jun Ling Consul-General, People’s Republic of China and Mrs. Tian.

 Mr. Roger Kwok, President of the WA Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

 Mr. Thomas Goh, President of the WA Chung Wah Association and Mrs. Goh.

 Mr. Dennis Wong, President of WA Taiwanese Association.

 Members of the Western Australian Singapore Business Council, Ladies and gentlemen….

On behalf of the Western Australian Singapore Business Council committee, let me extend to all of you a warm welcome to tonight’s celebration of the 35^th Anniversary of Singapore’s independence.

Many of you here tonight who have come from Singapore and other countries would have taken Australian citizenship. You chose to come to Australia for various reasons and had adopted Australia as your adopted country and by so doing, you had also brought with you, your culture to share it with the people of Australia.

As I had said once before, in my speech to the students of Murdoch University organised by Singapore Link last year, I had highlighted to them that the population in Australia comprises of people from more than 200 countries and with the culture and skills that was brought forth with them, Australia is one of the world’s most culturally diverse nation and can be the envy of the world.

We, the WASBC not only promote trading between our two countries but we also promote the various cultures of the people of both Singapore and Australia. Singapore is a multicultural society and we’ve learnt to enjoy and share with the different races, the different cultures and living in harmony, belt tightening when the times are hard and spend together at boom times.

To those, who had missed out meeting up with Brigadier-General Lee Hsien Loong, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, I’d like to quote some important trading figures to you, which he had highlighted.

The Value of 2 way trade(98-99) was A$8.2 billion.

Almost a quarter of the value of Singapore imports from Australia derives from food and beverage items.

By June 1998, Australian investment in Singapore was A$3.7 billion, and in return Singaporean’s investment in Australia was A$13.5 billion.

Tourists from Singapore to Australia in 1999 was 267,000 and tourists from Australia to Singapore was 470,000.

As you all know, there have been a large number of Singaporean students studying in Australia and so far there have been 70,000 Singaporean alumni of Australian Universities and currently it is estimated that there are 18,000 students studying in Australia, Singapore is WA’s largest market for education.

There are now about 9,500 Singapore born persons living in WA, making the state home to one of the largest Singapore communities outside Singapore itself.

I would also like to impart some information, which may interest you regarding the current situation in Singapore derived from the speech of the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. Goh Choh Tiong, when he delivered his speech to the Nation, on Singapore’s National day on the 9^th of August, which was 2 days ago.

And I quote….

The economy grew by 8.8% in the first half of this year.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has raised it’s growth forecast for the whole year to between 7.5% - 8.5 %.

The revised GDP growth for the first quarter is 9.8% up from the previous figure of 9.2%. For the second quarter, growth was 8%, up from the previous figure of 7.7%

With per capita income of $40,000 and universal home ownership. Singaporeans today are among the better off in the world.

We’ve created a role for ourselves as a regional hub in Asia and as a productive node in the global economy. Our economy is developing an external wing, to overcome the constraints of the small population and island.

Our National cohesion, a willingness to share burden has helped us pull through 2 serious crises, first the economic recession in 1985 and recently the Asian financial crisis.

He also disclosed that the government will introduce more measures to help Singaporeans overcome obstacles to marriage and having children. He cited the problem of women remaining single and fertility rates, as “grave problems” that Singapore has not manage to solve.

Far too many of our women remain unmarried. Singaporeans, who are married, are not having big enough families, to make up for those who remain single. We’ve not been able to solve these two grave problems. “Unquote”

I personally believe that due to previous stringent control in family planning, the population had got accustomed to having a small family and the luxury of time for themselves. Now, the statistics has sunk in and we find that we’re short of the younger generation.

Fortunately, the govt. has sight of the matter and are doing the best to rectify the matter. There is also a problem of the affluent society of today. With no chastity belt being worn, there really is no necessity to get married. Also, when the marriage breaks down, the proportion of the other partner laying claims on the hard earned money of the husband puts a stoppage to any realistic desire to get married. Unless the law is changed and improved it is unrealistic to think that the matter will improve.

In conclusion, the message has gone out to Singaporeans and foreigners who have fresh prospective and insights, entrepreneurship and drive, anticipation and the ability to solve problems will find that there is a good opportunity to work in Singapore.

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Last modified: September 08, 2001