The Hindu : National : Open up the sky and benefit, says Lee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 01, 2005

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National

Open up the sky and benefit, says Lee

Special Correspondent

"Singapore has a liberal aviation policy"

Economic Cooperation Agreement is just the beginning
Difficulty in getting air tickets between Singapore and India

Steps will be taken to move forward on policy: Kamal Nath

NEW DELHI: Open up the skies and pave the way for more tourism and investments. This was Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's plea to India on Thursday. He said a liberal aviation regime would increase the flow of tourists and create jobs in the sector.

"By maintaining a liberal aviation policy, Singapore attracts almost eight million tourists a year, double our resident population," as against 3.5 million visitors to India.

"You have rivers and mountains and we have nothing. Something is wrong somewhere," he told a meeting organised by the apex industry chambers here. There were unlimited flights between Singapore and China. "But between Singapore and India, travellers have great difficulty getting air tickets. This puts India at a significant disadvantage."

Mr. Lee said the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement signed on Wednesday was just the beginning of what India and Singapore could do together. One area for deeper engagement was in air passenger service.

Highlighting the importance of open skies for more investments, he said, "I hope that before too long, we will be able to liberalise air services between India and Singapore, so that we can generate further spin-offs throughout our economies."

Mr. Lee took a dig at the maze of the Indian bureaucracy while answering a question from Lalit Suri, MP and hotelier. A hotel might be set up in Leh but could close down before cash flow started, given the endless red tape, he warned.

A Jet Airways executive informed Mr. Lee that his company would welcome liberalisation and competition.

"No hostility"

Earlier, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told mediapersons that steps would be taken towards an open skies policy. He denied that there was any "hostility" to the proposal for "open skies" with Singapore as domestic airlines were now accepting competition.

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