MFA Press Release: Reply by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zainul Abidin Rasheed to Supplementary Question on Cultural Diplomacy in Parliament on 2 March 2006

REPLY

I think there are ways and means of measuring whether we are effective or not in terms of our cultural relations and cultural diplomacy. It is not just the number of agreements we sign. When you look at MFA, you realise that we are very short of people. We have enough difficulties in getting Singaporeans to represent us as Ambassadors, and that's why we have had to rely on Non-Resident Ambassadors. And what more if we appointed cultural attaches, like the big countries do? Nevertheless, we are active in various forms of cultural activities, as in the examples I've given just now. You can see from the kinds of things that we do, the numbers will grow, the activities will grow, and the reach-out will also improve. We feel that cultural diplomacy is indeed an important part of our cultural relations.