Singapore fully supports Malaysia’s chairmanship of Asean this year, highlighting the importance of greater integration and unity within the 11-member regional bloc, said Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at Perdana Putra on Tuesday (Jan 7), Wong emphasised that Malaysia and Singapore can serve as a foundation for a stronger Asean.
Anwar echoed Wong’s sentiments, agreeing on the need to prioritise Asean’s cohesion and progress this year.
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Speaking at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at Perdana Putra on Tuesday (Jan 7), Wong emphasised that Malaysia and Singapore can serve as a foundation for a stronger Asean.
Anwar echoed Wong’s sentiments, agreeing on the need to prioritise Asean’s cohesion and progress this year.
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NewsTranscript
00:00As far as ASEAN chairmanship is concerned, as I mentioned just now, Singapore fully supports Malaysia's chairmanship of ASEAN.
00:09We think it's going to be more important now than ever before for ASEAN to be strong, integrated and united.
00:17Because the greater competition we face is not amongst ourselves within ASEAN, it's outside of the region.
00:25Everyone is trying to anchor major projects now in today's world where the big economies are all talking about re-shoring, on-shoring, near-shoring.
00:35They want the key projects to be nearer to their home economies.
00:40So ASEAN has to come together, look at ways in which we can enhance our value proposition and be competitive together.
00:50Malaysia and Singapore can form a very important foundation for a stronger ASEAN.
00:56That's why the Johor-Singapore SEZ, the RTS, these are all critical building blocks towards more integrated ASEAN.
01:04And where ASEAN is concerned, we are talking about not just more trade and investment linkages but infrastructure linkages, including the ASEAN power grid.
01:14These are all good projects that Singapore will support and we hope under Malaysia's leadership we can make good progress on these projects.
01:23On ASEAN, I think I would certainly concur with the views expressed by Prime Minister Lawrence.
01:30That is why the focus should be more in terms of ASEAN energy grid or connectivity in the ASEAN digitalisation framework,
01:40in terms of enhancing intra-trade and investments within ASEAN, which has been, unfortunately, lacking.
01:48We've been successful in many areas and I think we should commend the contribution by past leaders.
01:55But I think the new focus is now mainly on the issue of the importance of strengthening our economic fundamentals as a region
02:05and strategic position vis-à-vis the new players and the new uncertain geopolitical demands and dictates.