SPEECH BY PRESIDENT S R NATHAN AT THE STATE DINNER HOSTED BY HIS EXCELLENCY LEE HAN-DONG, PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA, ON 17 APRIL 2002 AT THE STATE GUEST HOUSE AT 7.00 PM
Your Excellency Prime Minister Lee Han-dong
Mrs Lee
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of my wife and my delegation, I would like to thank Your Excellency, for the warm welcome and gracious hospitality that your Government has accorded to us. I would also like to express my personal appreciation to his Excellency, President Kim Dae-jung, for receiving us this morning, despite his indisposition arising from a physical injury. My delegation members and my wife and I are deeply touched and wish President Kim a speedy recovery.
2 I was shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the unfortunate air crash near the city of Pusan which claimed many lives. On behalf of the Singapore Government, I would like to express our heartfelt sympathies to the Government and the people of Korea. In particular, I wish to extend to the bereaved families of the victims our deepest condolences.
3 I vividly recall my last meeting with President Kim in Singapore in November 2000. At that time, the Korean economy, although on the path to recovery, was still undergoing painful reforms. Today, I see a Korea which has overcome these earlier difficulties and is once again moving towards sustained growth. Korea has performed a "Second Miracle on the Han River" through a combination of the wise leadership of President Kim and Prime Minister Lee, and the determination and resilience of the Korean people.
Your Excellency
4 The world has undergone a startling change, with peace and stability world-wide threatened by new concerns. The scourge of terrorism and religious extremism has complicated the recovery of the global economy. September 11 has been a cogent reminder to one and all of the dangers we face in the globalised age, where one can no longer afford to remain disengaged from developments elsewhere in other regions. Cooperation between countries at the intra-regional, inter-regional and international levels has never seemed more crucial.
5 In this regard, we applaud President Kim's efforts to engage North Korea to bring about peace on the Korean Peninsula. The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Kim in the year 2000 is a fitting acknowledgement of his statesmanship, vision and conviction to break down half a century of mutual fear and distrust. In today's globalised world, peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula would have tangible and positive benefits for the entire East Asian region and the international community.
6 Southeast Asia is also grappling with similar challenges posed by this uncertain global environment. Although it will take some time for the ASEAN countries to regain their past economic momentum, the long-term prospects for the ASEAN economies remain bright. Southeast Asia, with nearly half a billion people, offers an attractive market for Korean exports and investments.
7 Korean companies are already familiar with Southeast Asia, engaging in a wide range of activities spanning banking, finance, shipping, construction and manufacturing. I would urge Korean companies and investors to take advantage of the abundant opportunities that await them as the region recovers.
8 Our two regions, Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, have a strategic relationship and partnership, with a long history of close interaction and extensive trade and investment links. Furthermore, as Southeast Asia remains a region of strategic importance to your country as well as the major powers with a stake in East Asia, our two countries have a strong mutual interest to exert our influence and goodwill to foster greater inter-regional co-operation.
9 Singapore therefore welcomes and values Korea's long-standing engagement in ASEAN. Korea has been a strong advocate and key architect of closer East Asian integration through an eventual East Asian Community and the East Asian Vision Group initiatives. Korea can therefore play a bridging role, with Singapore as your partner, for our two regions to work more closely together to take advantage of the opportunities in the globalised world.
Your Excellency
10 Our countries share many social values and cultural similarities. We respect the elderly and cherish the family unit as the basic foundation of society. We value education, and recognise that hard work and thrift are vital to improving the living standards of our peoples and the competitiveness of our nations. We pursue outward-looking strategies and are committed to an open and free trade regime.
11 Singapore and Korea have consistently worked together in the WTO to promote free trade and uphold the multilateral trading system. Our cooperation at the many multilateral fora has brought us even closer together.
12 Underpinning our bilateral relations are our strong economic ties. In 2001, you were our 8th largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching S$15.2 billion. Singapore was Korea's 8th largest investor last year, with a total cumulative investment of US$2.3 billion. More than 71,000 Singaporeans visited Korea last year, while about 355,000 Koreans visited Singapore.
13 But both our countries are facing new and fierce challenges. New and major players, like China and India, will sharpen their competitive edge in areas like IT and the life sciences, as well as in the attraction of foreign direct investment. With the strong fundamentals in our bilateral relationship and our common aspirations, I am confident that we will work closely together and learn from each other to strengthen our capacity to confront new challenges. We will need to identify new areas of co-operation, especially in info-comm technology services, to create new engines of growth and prosperity for our peoples.
14 Let me end with a little-known anecdote. In March 1986, Singapore had its worst ever civilian disaster when the seven-storey Hotel New World building collapsed, killing 33 people. This was our first national calamity arising from a multi-storey collapsed building. Our civil defence authorities made an appeal for help in the rescue operations. A group of Korean workers, then working in Singapore on the Mass Rapid Transit project, immediately responded. They came straight from their MRT worksite, with their helmets, tools and equipment to help cut through the concrete slabs and clear the debris to look for survivors.
15 To these Korean workers, I want to say "thank you" here, on Korean soil. Although these Korean workers were in Singapore to work on the MRT project, they had responded spontaneously to our call, even at great risk to themselves. It is important to remember these and other contributions that your country and your people have made to Singapore, and be reminded that even as our two countries work closely together, the mutual benefits go well beyond the economic gains, to many other aspects of our relations.
Ladies and Gentlemen
16 It gives me great pleasure to invite you to join me in a toast to:
- the speedy recovery and continued good health and happiness of President and Mrs Kim;
- the continued good health and happiness of Prime Minister and Mrs Lee;
- to peace and prosperity for the people of Korea;
- to Korea's success in hosting the upcoming World Cup; and
- to even closer ties and friendship between Singapore and Korea.
Kamsah Hamnida!