S'pore Supportive Of Malaysia's Keeness On Common Time Zone For Asean Capitals

SINGAPORE, Jan 29 (Bernama) -- Singapore is supportive of Malaysia's eagerness on a common time zone for ASEAN capitals, said its Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law K Shanmugam. He said there was no doubt on this at all and in fact the common time zone was first mooted by Singapore some time ago. "ASEAN today is the 7th largest economy in the world with 600 million people, GDP of more than two trillion dollars and anything that helps businesses integrate, move goods, services, work with each other seamlessly, will help the man in the street." "After all, when you talk about ASEAN or ASEAN economic community, beyond foreign ministers and leaders’meeting, the question is what does it mean for the man in the street and when we meet – foreign ministers meet – that has got to be our primary concern," he said. He said this at the doorstop interview on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Minister's Retreat in Kota Kinabalu Wednesday. His transcript of interviews was released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here. During the retreat, Malaysia revisited the issue for the consideration of the Ministers and their Governments for an ASEAN Common Time Zone for ASEAN capitals. Shanmugam said the project must be in the national interest but at the same time, it cannot be only in one country’s interest, it’s got to be for the whole community. He said a common time zone will help businesses throughout ASEAN and "it will help us tremendously because we are a financial centre, because we are a services centre, and we do a lot of work in the region. The minister said: "I think everyone is supportive but we need to work out the details like which time zone do you choose. It is at a very preliminary level and the officials will be asked to look at it. "I think Malaysia is very keen to look at the project and we will be very supportive," he added. -- BERNAMA