Singapore, Sabah to further strengthen economic ties

KOTA KINABALU: Singapore says it wants to continue to strengthen economic, trade and investment ties with Sabah especially in tourism, technical and vocational education as well as property development.

Its Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is on the second day of his three-day working visit to Sabah, said the matter was discussed with Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

“I’m very happy to be here in Kota Kinabalu and also to be discussing further cooperation between Singapore and Sabah.

“We discussed a number of things on how we can work more closely together.

“Both (Singapore and Sabah) have an interest in more economic ties, trade and investment and also in tourism particularly. I think (tourism) that’s a wonderful product that Sabah has.

“Many Singaporeans have and visited (Sabah).

“We hope that we are able to increase that and perhaps investment in tourism,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.

Teo said Sabah has a variety of attractive tourism destinations including in Sandakan, Tawau and Semporna in the east coast.

He also invited Mohd Shafie to make an official visit to the island republic to discuss in further detail cooperation between the two sides.

Meanwhile, Mohd Shafie said the two leaders also discussed the launch of direct flights from Singapore to Sabah’s east coast, adding the state will send a team to the island republic to explore ways to develop its technical and vocational education.

“We can learn a lot from Singapore and how we can advance on this,” he said. — Bernama already come