OREANDA-NEWS. September 01, 2014. As part of a trip to South-East Asian countries, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrisov visited the Republic of Singapore.

Erlan Idrisov met with Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Justice K. Shanmugam, Singapore's leading experts in the field of innovation, and he delivered a lecture at the world famous Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

During the meeting with the Prime Minister of Singapore, the sides discussed current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, which, in addition to the economy, trade and investment, cover the field of public service, e-government, education, budget planning, support for small and medium-sized businesses.

It was noted that there is a large and underused potential in all these areas.

E. Idrisov noted that Singapore is one of the countries, which has a successful experience of socio-economic development actively adapted by Kazakhstan: "Our country has tried functioning of the state holding company to manage government assets." It was noted that the Singaporean experience of holding "Temasek" was used during establishment of the National Welfare Fund "Samruk-Kazyna".

Head of the Kazakh Foreign Affairs Ministry invited Singapore to actively participate in international exhibition EXPO-2017, and also gave a personal invitation to Lee Hsien Loong on behalf of the leadership of Kazakhstan to visit Astana at any time convenient for him.

Co-operation in development of chemical cluster in Kazakhstan, cooperation in the sphere of education and science, including in the field of vocational education were noted during the meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Singapore K. Shanmugam.

E. Idrisov informed that Kazakhstan also interested in developing cooperation in the legal field. There is an increase in mutual visits of our citizens. Singaporean side was invited to consider the possibility of concluding an agreement on mutual abolition of visa requirements for all types of passports valid for 30 calendar days.

The Kazakh Minister expressed his appreciation for the support of Kazakhstan in the Forum Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of the Asian group, and expressed the hope to support Kazakhstan's candidacy for non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018.

During his visit to Singapore, Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan delivered lecture at The Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy about the importance of creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, where he explained the main goals and objectives of the organization being created, and the opportunities offered for international economic cooperation in the light of the creation of the EEU.

E. Idrisov’s visit was widely covered by leading Singaporean media.