SINGAPORE, 7 July 2004 — Trade officials from six Middle Eastern countries outlined investment opportunities at a Singapore conference seminar yesterday despite the risks in the region. Among them were experts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Saudi Arabia is now allowing 100 percent foreign-owned companies into many sectors and global companies such a HSBC have set up operations there although there have been recent attacks on foreigners and other security concerns.
What’s happening is certainly worrying, “but not to the extent that would eliminate the prospect of opportunities in the country,” said Dr. Said A. Al-Shaikh, chief economist at Saudi National Commercial Bank. “I believe the government finally will prevail and security will be restored and the safety of the foreigners as well as the Saudis will be restored shortly,” he added. “With more Middle Eastern countries diversifying into non-oil sectors and liberalizing trade and investment, significant new opportunities are opening up,” George Yeo, Singapore’s minister for trade and industry, told the gathering. “The growth of China and India will shift the global center of gravity,” he said.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and the Iraqi War, the geo-strategic map in the Middle East has changed dramatically, Yeo said.
“Middle Eastern countries are turning to East and Southeast Asia to diversify their links and reduce their traditional dependence on the West,” he said.
The Middle East accounted for 5 percent of Singapore’s total trade with the world last year, Yeo said. More than four-fifths of this trade involved petroleum and refined petroleum products.
“We have been preoccupied with economic opportunities in the immediate regions around us, principally Southeast Asia, China and India,” he observed.
Yeo also blamed “negative media reporting of the Middle East, which paints an imbalanced and distorted picture of what is in fact a fairly wealthy region with significant potential”. “What we see on TV and in the newspapers are the images of war and terrorist bombings,” Yeo told the gathering, noting Southeast Asia faces the same problem.
“Americans and Europeans sometimes think that it is not safe to come to Singapore because of incidents in Aceh (Indonesia) or southern Thailand,” Yeo said.
The Singapore government is reviewing its policy on the Middle East and will give the region greater importance in the future, Yeo said.
IE Singapore, the government body pursuing investment opportunities, has been organizing more business missions to the Middle East, Yeo said.
A vibrant Singapore business community in Dubai has become a base for the city-state in the wider region, he said, and a free trade agreement (FTA) has been concluded with Jordan.
Negotiations on an FTA with Bahrain will start soon, as well as FTA talks with Qatar and Oman. “Egypt has expressed interest as well,” he added.
Singapore has clinched FTA’s with the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries.
