THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1981. Mr Lee: holiday-maker

Press, 23 September 1981, Page 20

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1981. Mr Lee: holiday-maker

Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister of Singapore, who is visiting New Zealand, is no stranger to this country. It is, in fact, a mark of his familiarity with New Zealand that he has come for a holiday for eight days before he goes to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Melbourne at the end of this month. Mr Lee will not put Prime Ministerial matters entirely aside while he is in New Zealand. He will have a meeting with the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon. The fact that there is no official agenda for such a meeting should remove the possibility that the visit would become a proverbial busmans holiday. Quite apart from Mr Lee’s holiday choice, New Zealand's links with Singapore are extensive and of long standing. The Commonwealth forms the most obvious link, but New Zealand is also associated with Singapore in the Five-Power defence pact. As a trading partner Singapore has an increasing importance to New Zealand. Of the countries in the Association of South-East Asian Nations, only Singapore and Indonesia have a trade surplus in their favour with New Zealand. Provisional figures for the year which ended June, 1981, put New Zealand’s exports to Singapore at $95.9 million. Meat, butter, and skimmed milk powder were among the most important. New Zealand’s imports from Singapore were valued at $311.6 million, and about 95 per cent of that sum

was for refined petroleum; the rest was mostly for textiles and manufactures. These figures grew from $69.9 million in: exports and $293.2 million in imports the previous year. Singapore’s development has been spectacular and the country, is moving out of the category of developing countries into that of a developed country. Mr Lee and Mr Muldoon will have matters apart from trade to talk about. Mr Lee has had a long political life, so long that he is now the most Head of Government in the Commonwealth Doubtless his views on the way things will go at Melbourne will be of considerable interest to Mr Muldoon. Mr Lee will no doubt also touch on the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea and what should be done about this knotty problem. He is never reticent about expressing both the views of Singapore and the views of A.S.E.A.N. on the question. Sometimes A.S.E.A.N. finds its views, as expressed by Mr Lee, rather extreme. Mr Lee’s personality and his political longevity appear to give him confidence to speak both his mind and what he thinks others should believe too. At home his People’s Action Party holds all the seats in Parliament. A new political party is holding an inaugural rally, but after leading Singapore since 1959, Mr Lee probably believes that he does not have to worry if a new party holds a rally while he takes a. holiday in New Zealand.