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At the World Chinese Entrepreneurs' Convention held in Singapore last month, I mooted the idea of a Pacific Foundation to help us achieve this objective of linking up Asian communities on the Rim. We can be like a new Hanseatic League in the Pacific. From the 12th to the 16th Century, the Hanseatic League linked the towns of the Netherlands, Northern Germany and Scandinavia in a loose association which brought prosperity to communities on the shores of the North Sea and the Baltic. On
the shores of the Pacific, an analagous phenomenon is now unfolding. What Lubeck and Hamburg did for the Hanseatic League, Hongkong and Singapore can help do for the Pacific League, economically and culturally.
CONCLUSION
If we are right in our prediction of the Pacific Century, the future of both Hongkong and Singapore can be very bright despite the uncertainty over 1997. Today, we are at the centre of the two fastest growing regions in the world, Hongkong in the South China region and Singapore in Southeast Asia. There is, however, nothing inevitable in history. We can only maintain our positions by constantly thinking of new ways to make ourselves useful to others and helping to maintain a larger political environment which favours trade and economic development.
By
working together Hongkong and Singapore we reinforce each other's strengths. Of course we will also compete against each other because that is in the nature of market economies, but our strategic relationship is essentially a co-operative one. Singapore can help
help Hongkong over 1997; Hongkong can help Singapore internationalize. Together, we are better able to secure our places in the larger Pacific space.
MITA/MSep20. '91/Pgs.1-6
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