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Singapore Other Trading Partners
Beginning in the mid-1980s, Singapore--which for two
decades
had sharply curtailed many forms of contact with
China--began
promoting itself as an alternative to Hong Kong as a
"Gateway to
China." In 1989 Singapore was estimated to be the
fourth-largest
foreign investor in the special economic zones of southern
China
and that country's fifth-largest trading partner;
Singapore's
companies were estimated to have about S$1 billion
directly
invested in China. Since most such investments were made
in
conjunction with Hong Kong-based companies, the real
extent of
Singapore's exposure to China may have been considerably
higher.
Non-oil trade with the various EEC countries, which had
been
steady during the early 1980s, strengthened in 1987 and
1988.
Nearly three-quarters of this increase was in exports of
disk
drives and integrated circuits, particularly to the
Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany), Great Britain and the
Netherlands. Overall, however, Singapore had a small trade
deficit
with Western Europe in 1988.
Data as of December 1989
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