SINGAPORE: Singapore's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong believes the private sector can play a role in urging governments to come up with pragmatic policies to create favourable business conditions.

He has urged businesses to signal to their respective governments if their voice needs to be heard.

Mr Goh was speaking at the closing session on Asian leadership on the final day of the World Economic Forum.

He said, "You lead instead of follow. This is the way to go for the future. Let the governments know what are the parameters that businesses can best work in.

"For example if you take ASEAN, and the businesses feel that the ASEAN market is not cohesive enough, it's actually ten different markets pretending to be an ASEAN economic community... if that is your conclusion, then it is for businesses to tell quite bluntly to the governments that we are not coming to ASEAN. We are going to China, which is one huge market, and we are going to India which is another huge market, where conditions are much better.

"In that way, businesses will put pressure on governments that they have to get their act together." - CNA/yy