“We say that we don’t think there’s money laundering going on here, but clearly people engaged in money laundering are looking for places like Singapore with low levels of transparency to actually engage in money laundering,” Ford said.

“If I was looking for somewhere to do my money laundering, Singapore would be getting towards the top of my list these days,” he added.

Singapore bank secrecy threatens EU trade talks-MEP
Tue Oct 2, 2007 6:43am EDT

SINGAPORE, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Singapore’s refusal to soften its strict bank secrecy laws could scupper talks with Europe about a trade agreement, a European politician said on Tuesday

The European Union and the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are negotiating partnership and cooperation agreements, which are a prerequisite for a fully fledged free trade deal

Read how “clean” and “efficient” is the Singaporean banking system

Monday November 5, 5:18 PM

U.S. tells Singapore to cut bank ties with Myanmar
BANGKOK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The United States told Singapore and its banks on Monday to sever financial links with Myanmar’s junta, widely believed to use the city-state as its main off-shore banking centre.
“We believe that there are regime officials with accounts in Singapore,” senior State Department official Kristen Silverberg told reporters in Thailand during a regional tour to drum up support for a tougher Asian stance against the former Burma. “We hope that they ensure that their financial institutions are not being used as sanctuary for Burmese officials,” said Silverberg, who is responsible for U.S. liaison with groups such as the Association of South East Asian nations (ASEAN).

Read and weep….

Sand in Singapore’s Gears
Tag it:Our Correspondent
05 March 2007

Indonesia, seeking legal recourse to nab fleeing financiers, uses the world’s cheapest commodity as a weapon

It started with a barge-load of Indonesian sand, or a whole fleet of them, delayed for the last two months on their way to Singapore to be used in reclamation projects.

At first Indonesian officials insisted the sand without a country was held up for environmental reasons. Now, it appears the sand is actually political leverage in an extradition tiff with Singapore over a brace of crooked bankers hiding out in the city state.

What’s really at stake is not sand, which should be the world’s cheapest commodity, but an extradition treaty that Singapore government authorities have been refusing to sign for 34 years. Indonesia wants a bunch of elusive bankers who took part in an astounding heist of more than US$13.5 billion looted from the Indonesian central bank’s recapitalization lifeline to 48 ailing banks during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

more at :

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?Itemid=31&id=406&option=com_content&task=view

This really makes me wonder if you are an apologist for the Singapore government…seeing you being do defensive..

Anyway here you go…

Indonesia seeks lost trillions in Singapore
By Bill Guerin

JAKARTA - Indonesia and Singapore last Friday sealed a bilateral extradition pact, opening the way for Jakarta to apprehend and try the many wayward business people and bankers who allegedly stole untold billions of dollars’ worth of assets from the country and parked them in Singapore in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

Successive Indonesian administrations have been stymied in their pursuit of footloose white-collar criminals, many of whom Jakarta

contends have fled and taken refuge in neighboring Singapore. Singapore has long denied the charges and refused to sign the extradition treaty unless Indonesia agreed to a concomitant defense treaty, which will expand on the previous Military Training Area bilateral arrangement that began in 1995 and ran through 2003.

read more at :

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IE02Ae04.html

Ok, let’s take it up from here.

Let’s talk about the Corridors. Folks put your politically tainted lenses away for a moment and talk economics for once.

As I had said, Malaysia is no longer in a low-cost location but neither we are in the leagues of economic giants like Singapore, Korea, Japan,etc.

So what we do ? We can either upgrade our skills and knowledge to compete with 1st World nations or find some ways that would give us comparative advantage over these nations.

The 2nd important purpose of these corridors are to have a balanced regional developments instead of the money being poured to create white elephants as it was during Dr M’s time when the focus was Klang Valley alone.

As such the Iskandar DR was a brilliant idea as it is situated right next to Singapore on a large tract of land. One, it offers a large, cheap region next to high cost, congested Singapore. It also offers cheaper labour and operational cost.

The foreign investors love the central location of Singapore, political stability, business friendly policies and its financial, regulatory and physical infrastructure. But the high cost of operations and the scarcity land are some of the issues they are facing.

By offering a location close by, these investors will tempted to move away their business operations and even residence while still maintaining their core operations in Singapore. Unlike in Shenzhen in China, Malaysia also offers a large pool of skilled and professional work force to staff these operations too. So these investors can enjoy the best of both worlds. I can easily think of a dozen industries / operations that can be relocated to IDR.

The appointment of Khazanah, SD and Petronas and other GLCs are meant to address the perennial Malaysian problem of poor execution and the political interference. With their managerial skills and experience, they offer something that our govt officials lack for a project of such magnitude.

Also the appointment of these bodies will ensure the development of integrated corridors rather than the disjointed efforts that are the characteristics of the past efforts.

The other corridors are less ambitious but nevertheless I found them to be well thought out as well.

With most of these states under Opposition rule, even this “billion or two” have gone missing. I think the country has to get worse before we all realise that the only option is to remove the inept federal government.