SINGAPORE, Feb 17 (Bernama) – The slowing down of the United States economy in the first half of this year would not hurt Asia badly, Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said.
“If the US catches cold, Asia will not catch influenza,” he told an aviation leadership summit here tonight held in conjunction with the Singapore Airshow beginning Tuesday.
He said if about 40 per cent of the intra-Asian current trade with the US were reduced to half, Asia would not widely be at a disadvantage.
Lee, who is Singapore’s former Prime Minister, said India and China’s economy would not dip below nine or 10 per cent if the US’ economy slackened as the two countries were expanding its economic activities this year.
He said the aviation industry would also not decline as more people would want to travel, new airports built and aircraft manufactured.
The aviation industry and its related activities accounted for about eight per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 32 million people were employed in the industry, he said.
Lee added that Singapore alone had 100,000 people involved in the aviation industry which accounted for five per cent of its GDP.
The minister said a big country like China, which believed economic activities could thrive in its faraway provinces if they were well connected with each other, was building more airports. By 2020, it would have 200 of them and by 2050, an extra 300.
Lee said the aviation industry had not reached a saturation point yet and had still a long way to go.
He said even tiny Singapore could cope with the current heavy air traffic and the city-state was even prepared to reopen its old Paya Lebar airport if it was necessary.