People who saw competition between Singapore and Hong Kong in terms of winners and losers were 'simplistic and uninformed', Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said last night. Mr Goh, speaking before proposing a toast to visiting Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, said that competition strengthened links between the two. 'The expansion of East Asian economies makes it important for companies and financial institutions to have regional operations catering separately to southern China. 'Hong Kong and Singapore are the preferred choices for such regional operations,' he said. He expected to see even greater synergy between the economies of southern China and Southeast Asia. Mr Tung, who had arrived earlier in the day after a 1.5-day trip to Kuala Lumpur, said he had come to see for himself what Singapore had achieved. 'I am particularly interested in the fields of education and housing, which are key concerns for my administration. 'We are competitors sometimes but other times we are very complementary,' Mr Tung said. Expounding his theory of good governance, Mr Goh said: 'The lack of excitement in post-handover Hong Kong is testimony to the calm and confident manner in which you have led Hong Kong, based on the solid foundation laid by China and the United Kingdom in the Joint Declaration. 'Good governance comes in incremental steps, away from the attention of newspapers or spotlight of TV cameras. 'It deals with problems of people and their aspirations,' Mr Goh said. Press spokesman said Mr Goh and Mr Tung had discussed Singapore's education and housing policies, including how to stabilise homes prices. The two leaders also discussed the promotion of bilingual education and information technology in schools. In Kuala Lumpur, Mr Tung said he had discussed the crisis in the financial markets with Malaysian leaders. 'The point I want to make is that the financial market goes up and down but Malaysia's fundamentals are very good, so in due course I'm sure it will be fine.' Asked whether another currency crisis would emerge, he said: 'I think the background of every country is different. But you know that Asian countries are very united and we are making concerted efforts on it.' He cited Hong Kong's efforts in joining the bid to rescue the Thai currency as an example.
