The Straits Times : Weekly Overseas Edition, 17 March 2001

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Total Pages: 24
1 24 The Straits Times : Weekly Overseas Edition
  • 19 1 The Straits Times Weekly Edition Saturday March 17,2001 Price: S$ 1.20 (in Singapore) Elsewhere by subscription only MITA 072/08/2000
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  • 449 1  -  Lifts will stop on all floors of HDB blocks and two thirds of all flats will qualify for upgrading LYDIA UM ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR EVERY high-rise Housing Board block will have lifts that stop on every floor, and the Government will relax the age criteria
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  • 265 1 NOMINATED MP Jennifer Lee is this year’s Woman of the Year, while table-tennis star Jing Junhong has won the Young Woman Achiever award. Dr Lee, 48, the chief executive officer of KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, has been vocal on issues related to enhancing
    GEORGE GASCON  -  265 words
  • 394 1  -  By LYDIA LIM SINGAPORE will be a comfortable home even with 5.5 million people, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan assured the nation on Tuesday. ‘There will be homes for all, industries to sustain economic growth and also room for our children to
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  • Page 1 Advertisements
    • 62 1 Chinese diaspora What Makes A Chinese Chinese? A global conference on the Chinese diaspora raises some very basic questions and touches on the degree of “Chineseness” PAGE 7 Rewarding nsmen Bonus Points For Varsity Entry Due recognition for their sacrifices? Or a policy that is going to put girls at
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    • 2 1 *****1 *****6
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  • PRIME
    • 748 2  -  They make their commitment to a multi-racial society clear at recent dialogue with SM By IRENE NG POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT KEY Malay community leaders made a major statement of principle during their dialogue with Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew: The Malay community supports the path of
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    • 514 2  -  By SALMA KHALIK HEALTH CORRESPONDENT HERE’S a dose of good news for patients: The limits for Medisave and Medishield claims will be raised. This will mean that many subsidised patients will not need to be out of pocket for medical treatment and hospitalisation. There
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    • 315 2 FOREIGN broadcasters who engage in Singapore’s domestic politics may have their reach restricted, under a new law to be introduced soon. They will be subject to the same rules that disallow foreign print media from engaging in politics here. Minister for Information and the Arts
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    • 322 3  -  By IRENE NG POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT COME the next General Election, results will no longer be announced at separate counting centres. All announcements will come from a single centre, which will be off-limits to the public and candidates. The centre is likely
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    • 289 3  -  By LESLIE KOH IN WASHINGTON A PROPOSED free-trade pact between the United States and Singapore can be expanded to include other South-east Asian countries, suggested Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo on Tuesday. This will likely help dispel criticism that Singapore
      REUTERS  -  289 words
    • 486 3  -  It is doing this to dispel the notion that it interferes in the operations of govt-linked companies, says DPM Lee By LEE SU SHY AN and EDNA KOH THE Government is prepared to “reduce significantly” its stakes in Singapore Telecom and
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    • 400 3  -  By IRENE NG POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has responded to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Singapore’s proposals to resolve outstanding bilateral issues. Singapore received the reply, dated Feb 21, on March 7- Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar told Parliament on
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  • HOME
    • 538 4  -  With banks setting up limited-purpose branches’, customers can deposit cheques and withdraw cash By EDNA KOH and LEE SUSHYAxN GROCERY shopping will never be the same again, thanks to new measures which will allow banks to set up “limited-purpose branches” in supermarkets across
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    • 393 4  -  i!L MARGARET PERRY TEN years ago, a heart transplant in Singapore gave Mr Krishnasamy Chandrasegaran the opportunity to see his second child then a few months old grow up. On Tuesday morning, Singapore’s longest-surviving local heart-transplant patient died in Singapore General Hospital (SGH)
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    • 319 4 FIRST, it was television, now it is radio. SPH Media Works, the broadcast arm of media giant Singapore Press Holdings, is expanding into another aspect of media and intends to use it as a springboard for going regional. It now holds
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    • 486 5 WHEN businessman Paul Tan and his friends found a small pile of religious figurines abandoned on a beach one day, they picked them up and housed them in a unique mixed-religion temple. That was some 20 years ago, when the fishing buddies
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    • 366 5 With the 1-billion Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund, they can now do so on their own WORKERS who want to upgrade their skills without asking for their bosses’ backing can get financial support from the sl-billion Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund. The fund set
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    • 353 5  -  *L LI-ANN WEE PRIVATE general practitioners (GPs) will soon have greater access to public hospitals and will be allowed to admit some of their patients directly to wards, bypassing busy accident-and-emergen-cy departments. Doctors will only be allowed to do this for serious but
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    • 279 6 CHIEF Justice Yong Pung How has been re-appointed to head the judiciary for another three years by the President. This means that CJ Yong, who turns 75 next month, will serve on the Supreme Court Bench until 2004. His extension of service does not
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    • 464 6 Schools here prepare students well for higher education and a good future in the workplace, says Minister Teo Chee Hean STRESS in education has been a hot topic in the media in recent months and, on Thursday, Education Minister Teo Chee Hean tackled the issue
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    • 281 6  -  Bu MARGARET PERRY SINGAPORE General Hospital (SGH), a leading treatment centre for haemorrhoids, or piles, in Asia, is now sharing its expertise worldwide using satellite technology. In demonstrations beamed live via satellite to surgeons in the United States, Australia, China and South Korea
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    • 372 6  -  Bu JULYN KANG ADVENTURER Khoo Swee Chiow’s expedition to the North Pole has barely begun, but it is already proving to be more exciting than he had expected. He and his German partner, Mr Armin Wirth, now have company and competition on their two-month-long
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    • 388 7  -  iIL SUSAN LONG Additional REPORTING BY Gillian Wong and Kimberly Tan GO ON, tell us whom, why and when to marry and make babies. Matchmaking is a dirty job, but someone has to do it. And who is better equipped to do so
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    • 263 7 FOUR new “half per cent” clubs have been set up in Singapore. The Singapore National Employers’ Federation (Snef) and property group Capita Land’s chief executive officer, Mr Liew Mun Leong, formed two of the groups, while dental surgeon William
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    • 788 7 Some 200 people, including scholars and community leaders from eight countries, attended an international conference on Chinese Community Organisations and Globalisation recently. LEONG WENG KAM reports OVERHEARD at the recent international conference on the Chinese diaspora: Visibly irked by the use of English by some
      LIM SIN THAI  -  788 words
    • 505 8  -  Promotional materials are responsible for upsurge in interest, says Taoist Mission Bn PAULINE LEONG TAOISM is experiencing an infusion of new blood. And it became obvious at the four-day Taoist Day celebrations held at an open field beside the Aljunied MRT station. Of the 10,000 who
      DESMOND FOO  -  505 words




  • Page 8 Miscellaneous
    • 1061 8 RADIO SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL (ENGLISH) PROGRAMME SCHEDULES 1100 1400 Hours (GMT) 6015 KHz (49M BAND) 6150 KHz (49M BAND) MONDAY 1100 News 1109 Business Market Report 1115 Arts Arena 1130 News 1135 Wired Up 1145 Newsline 1200 News/Weather (AsiaPacific) 1210 E Z Beat 1230 Business Market Report 1235 The Written Word
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  • SPORTS
    • 540 9  -  Hot Brazilian Renato plays his first and last match for Tampines before packing up for home S-LEAGUE SOCCER By. JEFFREY LOW SOCCER CORRESPONDENT THE hoopla over Brazilian striker Renato Martins turned into dust last night when the new S-League season’s most expensive signing came, saw, did little
      WONG KWAI CHOW  -  540 words
    • 38 9 THE CHEERLEADERS ARE COMIH6: s-League fans may enjoy the matches with club cheers and dances if plans under consideration materialise. So be ready for cheerleaders, such as these girls from Tampines Rovers. JAMES CROUCHER
      JAMES CROUCHER  -  38 words
    • 366 9  -  BOOST FOR SPORTS By TAY CHENG KHOON DEPUTY SPORTS EDITOR THE Sports Ministry on Wednesday unveiled a budget of $5OO million over five years for sports, and outlined plans for a new complex that aims to turn Singapore into a hub for world-class sporting events. Disclosing
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    • 272 9  -  SCHOOLS By] LEE WAI RHIM TWO new schools competitions will start this year. The cream will play each other in the Schools Converse All-Stars basketball tournament this weekend and the Inter-COE soccer tournament in May. It sounds quite like East versus West All-Star matchups
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  • MALAYSIA
    • 550 10  -  Violence breaks out between Malays and Indians in a working-class area, sparked by a quarrel between neighbours By LESLIE LAU IN KUALA LUMPUR CLASHES involving members of the Malay and Indian communities in a cluster of working-class neighbourhoods near here left six people dead
      SIN CHEW JIT POH  -  550 words
    • 585 10  -  By RE ME AHMAD IN KUALA LUMPUR SALESMAN Ray Kwang peddles his products from one shopping mall to another and, on a good weekend, can attract up to 20 customers. His “stall” consists of a table and two chairs set up in a corner and
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    • 371 10  -  By LESLIE LAU IN KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIAN Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi denied on Monday that the clashes between Malay and Indian groups were racial riots. He said the fighting had broken out because minor disputes had been blown out of
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  • SOUTH-EAST ASIA
    • 442 11 His chief foe says there is no way for Parliament to meet early against the President, who has until May to reply to its charges Reuters, AP JAKARTA Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid won some breathing space on Tuesday when his chief political foe conceded that
      Reuters,; AP  -  442 words
    • 463 11  -  DEVI ASMARANI STRAITS TIMES INDONESIA BUREAU JAKARTA Rebels in Aceh attacked a fuel depot belonging to state-owned Pertamina, prompting Jakarta to boost security around US petroleum company Exxon Mobil’s plant. Police said on Monday that two unidentified men speeding on a motorcycle threw a
      REUTERS  -  463 words
    • 417 11  -  By EDWARD TANG THAILAND CORRESPONDENT BANGKOK He has Eushed through a banking ail-out plan and has declared an all-out war on drug traffickers. Next, he is putting together a financing scheme for small companies and a programme to boost farmers’ earnings. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is
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    • 355 11  -  By ARTURO BARIUAD STRAITS TIMES PHILIPPINES BUREAU MANILA Despite his humiliating ouster close to two months ago, deposed president Joseph Estrada’s decision to challenge the move continues to bedevil the government’s efforts to revive the battered economy. Although his friends and cronies have deserted
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  • COMMENT
    • 564 12 THURSDAY MARCH 15.2001 THE Budget debate last week on the Health Ministry’s allocation washed over the public’s back, which was a surprise. Alone among public-contact ministries, Health habitually braces itself for all sorts of comeback at the parliamentary session ever-rising hospital charges, long waits, even as
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    • 570 12 TUESDAY MARCHI3,2OOI MARKET gyrations which the AttorneyGeneral’s committee on the supply of lawyers has had to grapple with show once again the limitations of projections as a forecasting tool in allocating manpower. In 1993, the committee found that Singapore was heading for a surplus situation. Law enrolments at
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    • 718 12  -  SPOTLIGHT: DANGEROUS CYCLING h STEVE DAWSON TRAFFIC and children don’t mix.As soon as a child is old enough to walk and talk, parents work tirelessly to keep him from straying onto the roads and an unthinkable fate. How else are kids
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  • COMMENT/PERSPECTIVE
    • 886 13  -  MY VIEW By IRENE NG IT WAS an evening where unchanging reality checks met hopes for change. During Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s dialogue with the Malay community recently, he presented the hard facts of life when discussing the community’s key concern
      NOEL ROSALES  -  886 words
    • 763 13  -  HEART TO HEART WITH ASAD LATIF DURING the Budget debate in Parliament last week, MP Lim Hwee Hua called for vigilance over the development of a psychological divide caused by tne extensive application of ever-changing technology, and the increasing liberalisation or deregulation of certain industries. True,
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  • INSIGHT
    • 2316 14 Singapore wants more babies. But if a family were to have a fourth child it would be ‘fined’ and would not be eligible for paid maternity leave and Edusave grants. Why has the Government retained policies meant to curb procreation? Does it ready
      STEPHANIE YEOW  -  2,316 words
    • 1060 14  -  THINKING ALOUD S,j SONNY YAP WHEN you read Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s latest memoirs, From Third World To First, you would have been struck by the habits of thrift and frugality which characterised the old-guard leadership’s approach to life and governance.
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  • MONEY
    • 288 16 IT WAS a week of hard knocks and bruises for the Singapore stock market with the Straits Times Index (STI) down a steep 126.2 points or 6.6 per cent at 1,772.1. The bourse was dealt with one blow after another throughout the week and
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    • 76 16 Straits Times Index Dm Straits Hates Index Ml 126.22 points on the week to 1,772.10 DAY CLOSE TURNOVER Monday 1849.84 (-48.48) 201.3m <$336.0m) Tuesday 1797.97 (-51.87) 293.3m <$623.4m) Wednesday 1792.18 5.79) 292.5m <$54Um) Thursday 1793.84 (+1.66) 364.8m ($640.4m) Friday 1772.10 (-21.74) 358.3m ($430.5m) iblcom,12 8T-SRI Index The
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    • 2416 16 Company Date ann Net earn TY LY ($m) ($m> EPS TY LY (cts) (cts) Adroit Innov Mar 05 5.887L 0.404L 2.4L 02L ASJ Hldgs Mar 13 P 8.434 6.014 622 4.45 Ascott Jan 31 P 4.789 I5.e 1L 0.31 1.7 L Achieva Feb 27 P 8.851 4.938 238
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    • 130 16 BONUS ISSUE ExBooks Acc& Company Ratio date dose Paymt Popular one-for-two Mar 27 Mar 30 NA Sunlight one-for-two Feb 15 Feb 20 NA NoelGifts one-tor-two Jan 8 Jan 11 NA RIGHTS ISSUE ExBooks Aec S> Company Ratio data close Paymt China Motion one-tor-four Dec 13 Dec 18 NA
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    • 224 16 Company Place Date Time Keppel Cap A Hotel Inter-Continental Singapore, 80 Middle Rd Level 2 Bugis Ballroom 213 S'pore (*****6) May 24 10.00am Ln Hwa 55 Ubi Avenue 1, #07-11 Obi 55 Building S'pore (*****5) Apr 5 10.30am Sport Food Industries A The Board Room 234 Pandan Loop
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    • 885 16 Payment (cts) Ex date Books close Pay date Amtell 20c 1 0.8TE Mar 15 Mar 20 Mar 28 Ascott 20c b 1 May 14 May 17 May 28 Australand A50c i 3 Mar 13 Mar 16 Mar 29 Avimo 20c F 4.3 Mar 13 Mar 16 Mar 28
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    • 66 16 Company Description Eastern Asia The proposed issue by the company of up to S$25 million m principal amount of convertible bonds due 2004 at an issue price of 100 per cent of the principal amount of such convertible bonds and the proposed grant by the company of an
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    • 2558 17 UNIT TRUSTS FUNDS Managers' prices (S$) UNIT TRUSTS Aierieen Asset Mot Asia Ltd Aberdeen Select Portfolio: Global MNC Fd 0.739 0.777 Global Technology Fd!** 0.633 0.666 UK Blue Chip Fd!** 0.757 0.796 American Opport Fd 0.804 0.845 Continental Euro Eqty Fd!** 1.059 1.113 Japan EqtyFd!** 1.091 1.146 Asian Fixed Income
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    • 150 17 Foreign Currency Note Rates (9am, Mar 16) Buying OD Selling Singapore dollars to one unit of foreign currency Australian dollar 0.8680 0.8810 Canadian dollar 1.1240 1.1480 NZ dollar 0.7210 0.7360 Sterling pound 2.5330 2.5590 US dollar 1.7660 1.7770 Singapore dollars to 100 units of foreign currency Austrian schilling 11.44
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    • 385 17  -  Global economic situation worsening, but Govt will keep to projection while watching developments, says BG Lee By NARENDRA AGGARWAL ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT THE Government has decided to stick to its 5- to 7-per-cent economic growth forecast for this year despite fastdeteriorating global economic
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    • 333 17  -  By EDNA KOH FINANCE CORRESPONDENT BANKING investors, revelling in the 22 per cent jump in total net earnings last year, should not hold out for similar good fortune this year. In fact, some analysts are expecting only single-digit growth this year, due in part
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    • 5055 18 Transaction date: Mar 16,2001 MULTI INDUSTRY 52-Wk Curr Last High Low Company Traded Sale ♦orVol 000 Day High Low Gr'* Dlv Net M Cap P/E $mll Wt Avg Price 153 49.5 c Acma 50c 51.5 -0.5 45 51.5 50.5 5 6.4 89.4 52 41 12
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    • 1183 19 BONDS, LOANS WARRANTS Transaction date: Mar 16,2001 52-Wk High Low Company Last Sale ♦orVo! '000 Day High Low Last Quote Buyer SeMer Wt Avg Price 40 0.5 s Acma W*****4 0.5 1 1 23 2.5 s AitTech W*****7 —.3 2.5 3 31 13.5 s Amtek W*****0 ...20 15 20.5 21
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    • 1185 19 52-Wk High tow Curr Last Company Traded Sale ♦orVd '000 Day High Low Gr*s Dlv Nat P/E M Cap $mil Wt Avg Price MANUFACTURING 191 58.5 C AS Auto 10c 60 ♦0.5 70 60 59 10 N 24 78.8 62 82 30 c ASJ Hldgs 20c 48 3.8
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    • 654 20  -  Some analysts forecast Straits Times Index to stabilise at 1,700 in coming weeks; others caution that it’s too soon to tell By WILLIAM CHOONG With ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JANE LlN, Jane Pek and Lavinia Low THE stock market was divided clearly into two camps on Tuesday:
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    • 400 20  -  By HUGHCHOW MOST weary watchers of the languishing Straits Times Index (STI) are asking the inevitable question: “Just how much longer can this slide continue?”. However, a few brighteyed opportunists are already starting to think about “bottom-fishing” for bargains when the market touches
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    • 151 20  -  By] LEE SU SHYAN ON TUESDAY alone, $7-48 billion in stock value disappeared from the Singapore market. And that was on top of the $6 billion it shed the previous day. This adds up to a $13.5 billion loss over the two trading days since
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    • 514 20  -  Ĕ1 HUGH CHOW THE Government has raised the possibility that the Singapore Exchange’s (SGX’s) secondary board, Sesdaq, may be scrapped. Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Parliament that the SGX will be scrutinising the job done by Sesdaq, to see whether the
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  • Page 21 Advertisements
    • 925 21 i f The Straits Times Weekly Edition ->2 is 381 N ITP ITP Worldwide* www4tpww.com Resource Dynamics is a local partner of an international < search group known as ITP Worldwide (www.itpww.cc ITP Worldwide is an association of leading IT search firms across USA, Europe and Asia Pacific specialising in
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  • Page 22 Advertisements
    • 1041 22 illfpL,. iillf ISXfej I# S 2 rou v Mr Planning and Development Officer The Ministry of Trade Industry is Singapore’s leading agency in the advancement of trade and economic initiatives. In this dynamic new economy where the business landscape is rapidly changing, MTI constantly strives to formulate sound and pragmatic
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  • FORUM
    • 884 23 23 I MUST congratulate both Mindef and the Ministry of Education on the recent move to give concessions to national servicemen seeking entry into the local universities. This is recognition long overdue and a step towards showing greater appreciation for the
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    • 643 23 I REFER to the reports on the dialogue between Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Malay community leaders, and the full text of his speech in The Sunday Times on March 4. I can appreciate the thrust of nis argument and his concern
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  • 98 24 The basic structure of the LRT line in Sengkang has now become part of the estate’s skyline, with most of its 14 stations along an 11-km route built. One feature of this line is that it is the first time an LRT track spans a river, in
    STEPHANIE YEOW  -  98 words
  • 499 24  -  Global players Exxon Mobil Asia Pacific, Anglo-Dutch firm Shell and US-based Bechtel aim to set up power-generation firms By WILLIAM CHOONG and CHEE JANN PERNG THREE of the world’s biggest energy conglomerates are to set up power-generation companies here. Global players Exxon Mobil
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  • 443 24  -  By] BRAEMA MATH I THREE or four women candidates have been identified by the People’s Action Party for the coming General Elections, and there might be a non-Chinese candidate among them. Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told reporters this last Saturday after speaking
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