S’PORE WRITERS FESTIVAL FINAL VOYAGE US PRESIDENCY OUTSPOKEN AND OUT THERE MORE CHOOSE SEA BURIALS BUSH CLAN BACKS JEB LIFE! C4&5 WORLD A19 OPTIMIST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SAILORS CLINCH SILVER HOME B6 SPORT B18 SINCE 1845 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014 S’pore, China launch direct trading of currencies Move set to lower cost of doing business and boost trade links By ESTHER TEO CHINA CORRESPONDENT IN SUZHOU SINGAPORE and China will start direct currency trading today, in a move set to lower the cost of doing business. It will also boost the already strong trade links between the two as Beijing pushes to internationalise the yuan. Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli announced the move yesterday at a high-level bilateral meeting in eastern Suzhou that he co-chaired with Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean. Mr Teo indicated that direct currency trading could be a game-changer. “This is a very major and significant development. I still remember my first visit to China 30 years ago. The currency was not even unified then and we had foreign exchange certificates. (The yuan) was not tradable at all,” Mr Teo told reporters. “But today, we have direct trading between the (yuan) and the Singdollar... It will reduce the cost of doing business and make it more convenient,” he added. Before this, companies that wanted to convert large amounts of the Singapore dollar to yuan, or vice versa, had to do so via an intermediate currency. Last year, bilateral trade rose 11 per cent year on year to reach $115.2 billion. Singapore is China’s largest foreign investor with US$7.3 billion (S$9.3 billion) worth of investments last year, while China is Singapore’s largest trading partner. Yesterday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore also said it has proposed to allow China-incorporated financial institutions to issue yuan-denominated debt Jokowi starts off on a stern note INDONESIAN President Joko Widodo swore in his Cabinet yesterday, notifying his ministers that they are to work for his vision and mission and that they must not be caught up in their own sectoral interests. L TOP OF THE NEWS A2 Anti-protest group seeks support MR ROBERT Chow (below), who leads a group bent on ending the road blockades by students in Hong Kong, has got his supporters to collect signatures from people who oppose the protest. L TOP OF THE NEWS A6 PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE GOODBYE, AFGHANISTAN A FLEET of planes and helicopters airlifted the last American and British forces from a key base in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province yesterday, a day after the Nato coalition closed the massive facility and handed it over to the Afghan military. The withdrawal came 13 years after a US-led invasion launched a long and costly war against the Taleban. With the withdrawal, Afghanistan’s army and police will take over the fight against the resurgent Taleban militants. $45m for projects to energise power industry By FENG ZENGKUN ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT SINGAPORE has set aside $45 million to boost its power systems and industry, and will also create the Singapore Institute of Power and Gas to train people. In addition, more consumers will, from next July, be able to buy electricity from retailers of their choice or the wholesale market, instead of having to buy electricity from SP Services at the regulated tariff. These initiatives were among the projects announced by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office S. Iswaran at yesterday’s opening of the annual Singapore International Energy Week. The five-day event at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre is a platform for professionals, policymakers and commentators to discuss issues. Mr Iswaran, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade and Industry, said the new measures were to “diversify our energy sources, foster greater competition in the electricity market, and reduce costs and enhance flexibility for businesses”. The Energy Market Authority (EMA) will use the $45 million in two projects. The $20 million Energy Training Fund is to train Singaporeans to be technical professionals for the power sector. Mr Quek Poh Huat, energy utility provider Singapore Power’s senior adviser, said the fund “addresses the impending shortage of technical professionals due to an ageing workforce”. The EMA set up the Power Sector Manpower Task Force in 2012, which Mr Quek chaired, to resolve manpower issues. It said last year that the power sector’s employees had a median age of 48, and the sector would need 2,400 more technical profes- sionals in the next decade. To help the manpower efforts, Singapore Power will also set up the Singapore Institute of Power and Gas to provide courses, which will be launched next year. The other $25 million will be used in a new Energy Storage Programme to fund research and development, as well as test beds, to improve the Singapore power system’s stability and resilience. Currently, only commercial and industrial electricity consumers who use at least 4,000kWh on average every month can choose whom to buy electricity from. Everyone else has to buy electricity from SP Services at a regulated tariff. From next July, the threshold will be lowered to 2,000kWh. About 10,000 consumers will become eligible with the lower threshold, adding to the current pool of 23,000. “Our goal is to progressively liberalise the electricity market so that all remaining 1.3 million consumers, from households to businesses, will...have more choice and options to manage their energy cost,” said Mr Iswaran. [email protected] L SEE TOP OF THE NEWS A8 instruments in Singapore directly. This will help to diversify long-term funding for Chinese financial institutions by allowing them to tap the global institutional investor base in Singapore, it added in a statement. Amid reforms to internationalise its currency, China has launched direct trading with several currencies: the euro, the British pound, the Japanese yen and the New Zealand dollar. Direct trading was one of the key outcomes at last year’s Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) meeting in Singapore. But no official start date was given then. Mr Teo is on a three-day trip that kicked off on Sunday in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) and the 11th JCBC. He said a proposed third government-to-government project in China’s western region was discussed, with the aim of reaching a conclusion in “concept, location and some programmes” by next year. The SIP and Tianjin Eco-City, two government-to-government projects launched in 1994 and 2008 respectively, have played key roles in earning Singapore the title of the largest and busiest yuan centre outside of China. Companies in both parks, for instance, can take yuan loans from banks in Singapore. Loans of almost two billion yuan (S$417 million) have already been made since the initiatives started three months ago, according to MAS. Yesterday, leaders from both sides stressed the need to come up with innovative ways to keep the parks relevant to China’s development stage. “We hope to see some of these projects that we’ve been discussing reach a good point next year to help us mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Singapore in a significant way,” Mr Teo added. Singapore is also working with Beijing on a wide range of issues, with five memorandums of understanding inked yesterday. They include cooperation on environmental issues, exchange programmes for officials, intellectual property and a framework agreement for the National University of Singapore to expand its presence in the SIP. [email protected] L SEE TOP OF THE NEWS A6 86 PAGES IN FOUR PARTS TO SUBSCRIBE: 6388-3838 www.sphsubscription.com.sg 90 cents A Singapore Press Holdings publication MCI (P) 073/02/2014 ★ ★
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