Singapore To Allow Protests At Next Year's IMF-World Bank Meetings

(Kyodo) _ Singapore will allow nongovernmental organizations to stage peaceful protests and demonstrations when it hosts the annual meetings of the board of governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank next year, despite the country's restrictions on such activities, Singapore officials said Tuesday.

Officials said at a news conference they are prepared to give leeway for regulated protests and demonstrations by accredited NGOs at the gathering, which will be held in September next year, but made clear the government will not tolerate unorganized violent protests.

'We will be able to manage (peaceful protests),' Goh Chye Boon, a senior official of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, who is also co-chairing a committee planning for the event, told a press conference to update on Singapore's preparations. 'But with regards to unlawful, unregistered demonstrations, we will not allow and will take action against those.'

NGO protests would be something of an aberration in a country where street demonstrations are normally not allowed by police and opposition politicians are only allowed to make public speeches in designated places during election campaigning and, at other times, at a small 'Speakers' Corner' set up at a park in central Singapore.

About 500 NGOs from up to 300 organizations are expected to turn up at the event, which will be the largest Singapore has hosted since the World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting in 1996.

An estimated 16,000 delegates from 184 countries are expected to descend on Singapore for the gathering, including 300 finance ministers and heads of central banks.

Goh said Singapore plans to take advantage of the event to showcase the country, while also helping to promote other countries in the region.

'When we look at the developments since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, we felt that the region has not quite got its share of the attention from the international community,' he said.

'We want to be the facilitator to bring back the attention to the region. The region has not only recovered from the crisis, but it has moved on to be the fastest growing region and we hope that will provide the opportunity showcase to the world not just Singapore but ASEAN and China and India, the whole of Asia.'

Singapore expects to spend between US$60 million and US$80 million on the meetings, which are also expected to provide about US$25 million in spin-offs to the Singapore economy.

The city-state clinched the right in 2002 to host the IMF-World Bank annual meeting next year without competition from other rivals after actively lobbying other governments for support.

This year's meeting will be held in Washington.

The last time an Asian country hosted the meetings was in 1997 in Hong Kong.