Bilateral agreement: It's 'all or nothing' - Goh

RELATED: Singapore presses for resolution of frozen Malaysian shares

S'pore wants to resolve all issues with Malaysia as a package. Negotiations may take another 12 months, says PM

SINGAPORE wants to be helpful in the water negotiations and the accompanying bilateral package of issues with Malaysia, but these have to resolved as part of an "all-or-nothing" agreement and the end point of negotiations may be another 12 months from now, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said here.

"I think it may be another 12 months for us to come to the end point of the negotiations," he told the Singapore media at the end of his visits to Argentina and the United States.

He said officials have held three meetings on the package of issues to be resolved between Singapore and Malaysia, and a fourth will be arranged this month or later.

Noting that Singapore had submitted its requirement for water, he said: "They have of course offered a much lower figure. We have to try and bridge that gap there."

For the railway land, under the Points of Agreement, Malaysia wanted more pieces of land, he said, adding: "Our officials have rightfully taken a maximum-benefit approach. Our officials have agreed to many of the requests which they have made...

"This is an all-or-nothing kind of a package. So you can make a maximum offer, they can make a minimum offer, and in the end if there is no deal, I mean the whole thing is off. It has to be agreed as a package."

He also said: "There's no point in trying to hide each other's hand in these negotiations. We want to be open and we want to be helpful."

While in the US, he looked at the latest desalination technology in Tampa, Florida. He said he was "encouraged" by what he saw in Tampa, especially when experts told him they expected a 50 per cent improvement over the next five years in the technology of the membrane used in the reverse osmosis process.

"Fifty per cent improvement means that costs can be brought down by perhaps that much. That gives us reason for optimism that this is a process which we can tap," he said.

There may be no choice but to tap desalination technology, though it is still costly, he said.

"It's very expensive, mind you, because of the energy costs. You go into desalination, it means you become dependent on energy. Instead of being dependent on Malaysia, you become dependent on oil, principally from the Middle East," he said.

But desalination cannot replace Malaysia as a source in terms of pricing, he said, adding that "if Malaysia prices the water to us beyond what we can get from desalination, then of course we won't buy from Malaysia".

He emphasised again that the water issue was not an immediate problem but a long-term concern, and Singapore had to plan ahead.

"Better for us to now explore what's possible. But the main optimistic note is that technology is advancing very quickly and costs therefore will come down," he said.

After his Florida visit, consultants may be called to do a study on the feasibility of moving ahead. This may take six months, he said.

There will be two projects: a distillation plant with a capacity of 30 million gallons of water a day, and a pilot plant using the reverse osmosis process which will produce one million gallons of water daily.