SANTIAGO, Chile: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made a final push on Friday to promote Asia and Singapore when he addressed top business leaders in Chile.

Speaking at a conference attended by top Latin American companies, Mr Lee said Asia's long term future is bright despite the ongoing global financial crisis.

Just hours before he headed back to Singapore, Prime Minister Lee gave his audience an insight into the emerging markets of China and India, as well as the impact of the global crisis on Asia.

He said the outlook was optimistic despite the recent upheavals in India and Thailand.

While the Mumbai terror attacks will trigger a fallout on India’s investment climate and confidence, Mr Lee noted that there are still opportunities in the country. India, for example, is a leader in business process outsourcing, IT and pharmaceuticals.

Similarly, Mr Lee said Thailand, despite the present turmoil, realises that closer economic integration is crucial.

For Singapore, Mr Lee said one strategy to deal with the economic crisis is to widen the safety net internationally. Singapore sees the Latin American region as a new economic frontier offering good business and investment opportunities.

Mr Lee added: "These are challenging times, but we must look beyond immediate problems and pessimism. Despite the crisis we must persevere with long-term policies and continue to maintain and cultivate friends all around the world.

"These will create conditions for sustained growth and development, and position ourselves to grow strongly again when the storm passes."

Interest from the audience was apparent during the Q&A session later when Mr Lee was asked questions on a wide range of topics. These included how Singapore manages race and religious discourse and the country's strict laws on drugs and graffiti.

"We make sure that our public order is clean," said Mr Lee. "The public streets are clean, the buildings are graffiti free because people have to feel safe...

"If you go to a city where graffiti is all over the place, you don't only not feel safe, but the threshold for people to do more bad things is lower. Therefore, if we catch you vandalising, spraying graffiti in Singapore, there are penalties. It's not the death penalty, but we will (cane) you quite hard."

One aim of Mr Lee's bilateral visit to Latin America is to promote Singapore to Latin American businesses. He has met more than 1,000 business leaders over two separate meetings in two separate states.

Moving forward, Mr Lee also invited Latin American companies to visit Singapore during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meeting in November next year.

- CNA/yb