*
BY
MALCOLM
OF BBC
XTRACT OF AN INTERVIEW
BILLINGS WORLDSERVICES' SEVEN SEAS PROGRAMME WITH DR YRO NING HONG, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND SECOND MINISTER FOR DEFENCE ON 14 MAY 1991
BILLINGS: Is shipping increasing in importance?
MINISTER: Yes it is,
Progressively it is becoming more and more important. We handle about 200 ships everyday or a total of about 45,000 a
a year. Last year we had A total of about 480 million tonnes of shipping sailing through singapore,
BILLINGS: Where does that place Singapore in terms of the world
league?
MINISTER: Last year we became the first. We handled 5.2 million boxes. That puts us right at the very top.
BILLINGS: Ahead of Rotterdam?
MINISTER: Ahead of Rotterdam, ahead of New York, ahead
Hongkong.
of
BILLINGS: I wonder if when Hongkong is returned to the Peoples' Republic of China, whether this will make a great deal
of difference?
MINISTER: We will gain some business from Hongkong Most people?
will gain a bit of business if Hongkong does show significant” signs of slowing down. In singapore we have a slightly different view from conventional wisdom, namely that Hongkong – will not continue to
thrive after 1997. We believe in singapore that Hongkong will that the Chinese Government in the _ „Peoples' Republic of China will not throw away their
very valuable asset. And in Hongkong their asset is
not in the buildings, not in the small island, but in
the people, the organisation and the infrastructure
that they have built in the last century and half
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