Singapore urges investors to look at Sri Lanka

Singapore is urging local businessmen to explore investment opportunities in Sri Lanka following the defeat of the LTTE, a report said in Singapore yesterday.

"Our business community should take an interest in what's happening, assess the risk and be aware there is a new situation," Foreign Minister George Yeo was quoted by the Singapore Straits Times as saying during a visit to Jaffna.

"We have historical ties with Sri Lanka and it is an asset that may achieve some value," he told Singapore media Sunday at the end of a four-day trip to the island. Yeo said he had a sense of "cautious optimism about Sri Lanka's future". Singapore's trade with Sri Lanka totalled (US$ 1.07 billion) in 2008, just 0.42 percent of the city-state's total trade last year. Singapore's total foreign direct investment abroad stood at US$ 260 billion as of 2007.

AFP