Speech by the Minister for Trade Senator Bob McMullan at theSingapore Australia Business Alliance Forum Launch, Sydney, 4 August 1995
We are here today to witness the next step in cooperation between Australia and Singapore
- cooperation that has developed through the shared vision and friendship of Prime Minister Keating and Prime Minister Goh.
Firstly, I warmly welcome His Excellency Mr Goh Chee Wee, Singapore Minister for State and Trade and Industry, and the distinguished delegation which has accompanied him to Australia
- and I also welcome the members of the Singapore Australia Business Alliance Forum to this launch and first meeting.
The Singapore Australia Business Alliance Forum, or SABAF, is a joint Prime Ministerial initiative which was announced during Prime Minister Goh's visit to Australia in September last year.
Both Prime Ministers decided that a high level business forum, reporting directly to them, could play an important and strategic role in developing bilateral commercial relations.
The SABAF is an extension of the strategic business linkages concept which has been evolving since Prime Minister Keating's visit to Singapore in 1992.
The primary objective of the strategic linkages initiative is to bring our respective private sectors into direct contact
- and to encourage them to explore together opportunities for new business in Singapore
: and in third country markets.
To take this initiative further, I would like to see the SABAF develop concrete proposals where Australian and Singaporean companies can cooperate to capture emerging opportunities in third markets such as China, Vietnam, India and Indonesia.
Minister Goh and I have spoken previously about the significant prospects which exist for Australia and Singaporean companies to cooperate in the provision of tourism facilities
- hence the tourism focus of the business mission which is here with Minster Goh.
The SABAF comes at an exciting time for both Australia and Singapore
- both economies have undergone much change in recent years in response to developments in the international trading environment.
Australia and Singapore have both been active in pushing for trade liberalisation in regional and multilateral forums
- Singapore's commitment to a liberal trading environment is demonstrated by its hosting of the first World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in 1996.
Governments play an important role in developing bilateral relationships and influencing the environment in which trade can take place
- but it is business and not government which must take up the challenge and make the commercial opportunities happen
: and a high level group such as SABAF can play a major part in setting the strategic direction for the commercial relationship.
While it is not appropriate for Ministers to tell SABAF members what they should discuss in their Forum, I look forward to their views on ways to further progress the concept of strategic linkages
- including specific opportunities in third country markets
- and ways to maximBefore I finish, the Prime Minister has asked that I read out a personal message from him welcoming today's launch.
SABAF MESSAGE FROM PRIME MINISTER KEATING
I wish to extend my personal best wishes to all participants in this first meeting of the Singapore Australia Business Alliance Forum. I would like to extend an especially warm welcome to the Singaporean members of the Forum, and to Minister Goh Chee Wee who has kindly agreed to accompany them to Australia.
I am sorry that official commitments in Queensland prevent me joining you personally in the launch of the SABAF today.
Australia and Singapore are in some respects unlikely partners: But thanks to the ties of history, economic complementarities, people-to-people contacts and shared strategic interests, we have built together a unique relationship that benefits not only our two countries but the region in which we live.
With two way trade valued at $5.5 billion in 1994, Singapore is Australia's seventh largest trading partner and we are Singapore's twelfth largest. Australia has more investment in Singapore than in any ASEAN country and Singapore is the largest ASEAN investor in Australia.
We have a particularly close defence relationship, notably through our common membership of the Five Power Defence Arrangements and our extensive bilateral defence co-operation program.
And we work together very closely on wider international and regional issues especially in APEC, where our mutual commitment to an open and liberal multilateral trading system makes us natural partners.
Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Goh and I decided in September 1994 to establish the SABAF to tap into the talents and energy of business in building this strategic partnership between Australia and Singapore. In particular, we hoped that the SABAF would identify areas in which Australian and Singaporean companies might co-operate to mutual advantage in third country markets. To back this up, we agreed to institute a $2 million fund to help examine the feasibility of such strategic linkages.
Each of you has been personally selected by Prime Minister Goh and myself because of your strategic grasp of the potential of the bilateral relationship and your record of success in the challenging business environment of the Asia-Pacific. Each of you brings to the SABAF enormous talent, experience and commitment. I am sure that you will find in each other kindred spirits and - I hope - new and dynamic business partners.
I wish you all well for the success of your meeting. And I look forward to hearing - and acting upon - your recommendations.
P J KEATING