January 30, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 10, 1428

SINGAPORE, Jan 29: Investments in Singapore last year are expected to contribute a record value-added 13.4 billion Singapore dollars ($8.8 billion) to the economy and create 26,800 jobs on completion, the government said on Monday.

“2006 actually is a bumper year for the investments,” said Lim Siong Guan, chairman of the Economic Development Board (EDB). “It's the highest we have ever recorded -- the 13.4 billion (dollars) of value add.” Value added investment refers to the total contribution of the projects to gross domestic product when completed.

Last year's value-added investments exceeded EDB's forecast of 10.5-11 billion dollars and was better than 10.8 billion dollars achieved in 2005.

For 2007, EDB projects Singapore is likely to attract value-added investments of 11-11.5 billion dollars.

“The economic outlook worldwide and for Singapore for 2007 is buoyant, although economic growth is expected to moderate,” the EDB said.

Singapore's economic growth in 2007 is targeted to slow to 4-6. per cent after expanding 7.7 per cent last year.

The EDB said a number of projects secured in 2006 were worth more than one billion dollars in terms of fixed asset investments (FAIs), bringing the total amount to 8.8 billion dollars, higher than the 8.5 billion recorded in 2005.

These included a 1.7-billion dollar wafer plant by South Korea's Samsung Electronics and a 1.3-billion dollar disk media factory by US tech giant Seagate.

“These substantial FAI projects further anchor our key industry clusters and investors in Singapore,” the EDB said.—AFP