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Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong believes Singapore can start a new cooperative relationship with its closest neighbour Malaysia.
His comments come in the wake of an upbeat assessment of ties with Kuala Lumpur by Foreign Minister George Yeo in Parliament recently.

Mr Goh also stresses that there is a lesson for Singapore from the latest spate of issues concerning the export of sand and granite from Indonesia.

The Senior Minister was speaking to reporters at the end of his visit to Iran on Wednesday.

On Malaysia, Mr Goh said that development plans for the Iskander region in Johor could bring about real cooperation between Malaysia and Singapore.

Singapore would want to cooperate if it is welcome.

And such cooperation must go on, despite possible ups and downs in future bilateral relations.

SM Goh said: "And we would not be counting who wins more. I think a very dangerous way of cooperating is if we start to count who wins more; is it 'A' who wins more or is it 'B' who wins more in the cooperation? Then there will be no cooperation. Because in any venture, sometimes 'A' benefits a bit more and 'B' benefits a bit less."

Asked about recent reports from Indonesia that it also plans to ban the export of granite to Singapore, Mr Goh said that he hoped there would be some clarity from Jakarta.

He said: "The lesson for us is: never be dependant on any one source for anything, whether it is water, granite, sand. We have to have many sources and sources can be further away and we have to pay the price for sand from far away. I think we pay the higher price. So we just ride over this particular period."

On domestic issues, the Senior Minister said that one issue of great concern to Singapore is the loss of its own people at the very top.

Singapore has done very well so far, but the challenge is whether it can continue to do so over the next fifty years.

The world is now competing for human resources and talent and Singapore is not being spared.

SM Goh said: "These are bright young people. These are children of very well educated Singaporeans. They study overseas now. They are very good ones, are being green harvested by companies.

"It's not that they do not want to come back to Singapore. They want the experience of working in foreign universities, foreign banks and foreign companies. But after two, three years, they may meet somebody, they marry and settle down overseas and some find it difficult to relocate because houses are much more expensive in Singapore. The pay is certainly much smaller where they could be and they might like the lifestyle where they could be, they don't come back. If we lose the top 0.5 percent of the next generation......Singapore will have a much lower peak."

That is why Singapore has to bring in more people from outside, turn them into Singaporeans for them to work in Singapore and grow the peak, explained Mr Goh.

The Senior Minister was also asked for his views on the recently concluded committee of supply debates in Parliament.

Mr Goh said that the new MPs were articulate in making their points.

But he also hoped that the ministers would move away from their prepared replies and engage the MPs more in debate.

And with the new time format implemented in Parliament, MPs speeches were concise and that was a good development, said Mr Goh. - CNA/ir