Investment opportunities offered by Singapore

SINGAPORE — Private companies in emerging Asian economies, including the Philippines, should consider investing in Singapore’s thriving water business, the city-state’s lead economic agency said. Singapore is positioning itself to become a global water hub and the region’s firms will have a role to play, officials of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) said. A water sector boost is expected to diversify a largely export-oriented economy that is home to some 30,000 international firms, mainly from the manufacturing, financial, and transport and communications sectors. Asian firms’ presence in this wealthy city-state, however, has not been strong until the past five years, Manohar Khiatani, assistant managing director for industry development at the EDB, told visiting journalists on the sidelines of the Singapore International Water Week. "In the last five years, we see more and more companies from the region, including Malaysia, Thailand and several from the Philippines," Mr. Khiatani said in response to a question from BusinessWorld. "Environment and water are new sectors we’re trying to develop here in Singapore. We’re positioning ourselves in terms of our competitive advantage, and urban solutions is a new approach from a market perspective." Self-sufficiency in water has been the obsession of Singapore since 1965, when it first severed ties with neighboring Malaysia, the country’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew said on Wednesday night. The city-state, with its scarce resources, had been long dependent on Malaysia for its water supply, with at least two water agreements that are scheduled to expire in 2011 and 2061. Singapore now boasts of at least 15 water reservoirs and a new technology called NEWater, which is water recycled from the sewer meant to serve its industry needs and provide an alternative for drinking water. Speaking in a ceremony that capped the weeklong event, Mr. Lee said water reclamation and waste management would be a "huge industry" as economies grapple with the problem of water shortage. "The world will need this because what we have assumed was limitless, endless supplies of water ... we have found it not to be so, and we (have) found a way out of it," Mr. Lee, now Singapore’s Minister Mentor in the government of his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, pointed out. - BusinessWorld