SINGAPORE: Foreign Minister K Shanmugam has said the high-speed rail link between
Singapore and Kuala Lumpur goes beyond economics.
He said bilateral relations
between Singapore and Malaysia have been on an upswing in recent years.
Mr Shanmugam was speaking to
Channel NewsAsia in a "live" studio interview on Friday evening.
He said Singapore-Malaysia
relations has seen a breakthrough since 2010.
"The substantive
relationship between Singapore and Malaysia, if you look at the trade ties,
people-to-people ties, Malaysia is Singapore's number one trading partner. Both
ways, both benefit. And the political relationship has generally been good. In
the last few years you can say it's been on an upswing," he said.
On Tuesday, Singapore and
Malaysian Prime Ministers had announced plans to build a high-speed rail link
between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
It is expected to cut travel time
dramatically between the two cities - to a mere 90 minutes.
Mr Shanmugam was asked if the
project could help Singapore tap on the Malaysian labour pool.
"Malaysia has been a large
source for our, in fact the largest source for our permanent residents, our
newer citizens, and also in our labour force. But the fact is Malaysia itself
is facing a labour shortage. If you look at it today, Malaysia has had to
import foreign labour into Malaysia, and we are finding it difficult to get
people from Malaysia to Singapore. That's the reality," he said.
"The primary factor in this
is it's going to increase people-to-people connectivity, in moving, travelling,
working and playing, in each other's territory," he added.
The project will add to ASEAN
connectivity, Mr Shanmugam said. "The ASEAN Economic Community, the vision
of 2015 is one of bringing people of ASEAN together, across the social,
economic and political pillars. And also, ASEAN connectivity, which means road,
rail, airlinks, sealinks, all to be much more integrated. Ultimately, of
course, hopefully the rail link all the way from Singapore down to southern
China!"
Studies for the rail link have to
be completed before the project can start.
But Mr Shanmugam said he sees
"no reason why it shouldn't work".
He also gave an indication of how
the cost could be split.
Mr Shanmugam said: "You can
see from the map, KL to Singapore, where most of the rail will be.
As most of the rail will be on
the Malaysian side, he said there is a logic to how cost could be split -
depending on where it is.
As for the total cost and the
location of the Singapore stop in the rail link, Mr Shanmugam said it's too
early to tell.
- CNA/de
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