S’pore is what it is today because of globalisation: Lee Kuan Yew

SINGAPORE: Former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said Singapore is what it is today because of globalisation. He said the investments of trans—national firms have played a part in the country’s development.

Mr Lee made these remarks on Friday night while hosting French oil giant TOTAL to dinner at the Istana.

He has been on the firm’s International Advisory Committee since 1993, and said the experience has given him useful inputs as a Senior Advisor to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).

Mr Lee recounted how Singapore overcame the odds after separating from Malaysia and becoming independent in 1965. He said Singapore made some errors in its history, but got more things right than wrong, on the whole.

He said: "We were suddenly confronted with the challenge of making a living for two million people on a barren island at the southernmost tip of Asia, which gives us the advantage of servicing all the ships that cross the Atlantic and the Pacific.

"But more than that, we learned how to create conditions which gave confidence to investors, and made living in Singapore safe for foreigners and their families."

TOTAL’s chairman and chief executive, Christophe de Margerie, paid tribute to Mr Lee as Singapore’s founding father and invited him to stay on the company’s Advisory Committee for as long as he wants. TOTAL bases several of its activities in Singapore, including the marketing of lubricants.

—CNA/ac