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President Nathan arrives in Kuwait for 4—day state visit

Singapore President S R Nathan arrived in Kuwait on Monday for a 4—day state visit. The aim of the visit is to strengthen and deepen existing relations between both countries.

This will be the first state visit to Kuwait by a Singapore president despite high—level exchanges between Singapore and Gulf region countries over the last four years.

President Nathan was welcomed at the airport by Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Dr Mohammed Al—Sabah Al—Salem Al—Sabah.

President Nathan will be calling on the Amir of Kuwait, and meeting the Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly on Tuesday.

During his visit, President Nathan will also witness the signing of three bilateral agreements.
The first is an Agreement on Establishing a Joint Committee for Co—operation between the two governments.

The joint committee is a platform for both countries’ Foreign Affairs Ministries to promote bilateral cooperation in areas including trade and investment, energy, culture, science and information.

The second agreement is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Co—operation in e—government, to be signed between the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore and the Central Agency for Information Technology of Kuwait.
This is the third MOU the two agencies are signing on e—government. The first was signed in 2004.

In the past four years, IDA has worked with its Kuwaiti counterpart in launching an e—government portal for Kuwaiti citizens and setting up an information network system for internal government communications.

The third agreement is an Open Skies agreement, which will allow carriers of both Kuwait and Singapore to operate unlimited air services between the two countries.
Accompanying President Nathan on the visit are Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zainul Abidin Rasheed and Members of Parliament Irene Ng and Fatimah Lateef.
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim will be joining the delegation on Tuesday.

Kuwait is Singapore’s second largest trading partner in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia.
Last year, trade between both countries rose by nine per cent from 2006 to S$8 billion. Singapore imports mainly crude petrol and refined petroleum products from Kuwait.