BUSINESS Maggie’s Singapore link
HOLIDAYS spent on Magnetic Island, including a chance meeting with music industry legend Molly Meldrum, has laid the groundwork for a productive bond between Townsville and Singapore.
It has also made businessman and the president of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, Ian Cummin, one of our best ambassadors.
The former BluesScope executive is on the board of a BlueScope- Tata Steel joint venture in India.
He was in the city this week for the chamber’s Australian roadshow but is no stranger to Townsville. He has recently invested in tourism properties on Magnetic Island.
Mr Cummin said his acquisitions here were aimed at a transition from corporate life to a blend of “lifestyle with an investment”.
“For my family and I, Magnetic Island is one of the best lifestyle locations we can think of,” Mr Cummin said.
He first visited the island in the 1980s when he worked for John Holland Constructions and Comalco.
“I met Molly Meldrum … somebody had knocked off his Moke and I gave him a lift back to the pub,” Mr Cummin said.
“He remembered it when I ran into him again probably 20 years later in Alice Springs.”
Mr Cummin now heads a chamber which has 700 members from 300 Australian com- panies with Singapore.
“It’s always good to have someone who genuinely believes in the potential of the relationship ( between Townsville and Singapore) and I do,” Mr Cummin said.
The signing of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Singapore and Australia in 2016 has strengthened economic, defence and social ties and triggered plans for expansion in defence training and investment of $ 2.25 billion a presence in in defence facilities in North Queensland.
Mr Cummin said education was a big opportunity with James Cook University already well established in Singapore with 3000 students enrolled in its campus.
He said there would be benefits flowing from the defence relationship and tourism.
“Among our members in the chamber in Singapore, there’s a lot of successful members who are in agriculture, meat and food,” he said.