Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged couples to have more kids as the city-state's birth rate declined to its lowest level during the last year.

In a note marking Sunday's start of the lunar Year of the Tiger, Lee said, "Despite all our efforts, we are producing far too few babies."

"Last year, we were short of at least 10,000 babies just to replace ourselves," he added.

Lee particularly advocated ethnic Chinese to ignore their false notions against kids born in a Year of the Tiger.

Singapore’s birth rate slipped to its lowest level ever in 2009 resulting the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to ask couples to have more children. Lee said in a message marking Sunday's start of

the lunar Year of the Tiger," Despite all our efforts, we are producing far too few babies."

He added," Last year, we were short of at least 10,000 babies just to replace ourselves."

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong projected GDP growth rate between 3 to 5 per cent in the coming year. Delivering his message on the eve of New Year, he said that the GDP of city-state grew 3.5 per cent during fourth quarter though it is still in negative territory at minus 2.1 per cent on year basis.

Lee expressed, "Our economy is growing again, and has recovered much of the ground since the recession began last year."

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday said the city-state's economy had bottomed out and was not expected to take another dip after it emerged from its worst recession in history.

"We are out of the trough," said Lee. "We do not expect another dip in the economy."

In the third quarter, Singapore's economy showed its first year-on-year expansion after three quarters of decline, climbing 0.8 per cent compared to a year earlier.

Singapore  - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday warned Singaporeans to brace themselves for dampened growth next year and a stagnant unemployment rate although the city-state has pulled out of the deepest recession in its history.

"We are now past the worst of the storm," Lee said at a union conference. "Our economy has rebounded sharply."

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday congratulated Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) President Yukio Hatoyama on his landslide election win, noting that the two countries enjoy strong and multi-faceted relations.

The DPJ's historic victory clearly reflected the Japanese people's desire for change, Lee said in a letter to Hatoyama

"I hope we will have an opportunity soon to discuss how we can enhance our cooperation," he added. (dpa)

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday said that the storm of the global economic downturn had passed the city-state - but the outlook beyond the third quarter 2009 was still uncertain.

"We are looking ahead cautiously towards the rest of the year," Lee said in his national day rally speech, marking the 50th anniversary of Singapore's self-government and the 44th anniversary of its independence.

"The third quarter should be alright, beyond that the outlook is still not so clear," Lee added.

Singapore - Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday warned the city-state to brace for more job losses in 2009, although he said the economy did better than the government had feared.

"We might see another wave of retrenchments later in the year," Lee said in a speech broadcasted on Singapore's state television on the eve of national day, marking 44 years of independence.

Singapore - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Monday said the city-state would work closely with Thailand as the chair of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to strengthen the organisation and make steady progress on its integration.

"We must focus our energies in the coming months to ensure a productive meeting at the ASEAN summit in October," Lee said at an official lunch in honour of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was on a one-day official visit to Singapore.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Thursday that the city state's economic growth forecast for this year will have to be revised downwards from the current minus 2 per cent to minus 5 per cent as exports continue to be hit by the global economic slowdown.

But Lee said he did not think the decline would be double-digit.

Singapore's exports have been hit hard and the global situation was not looking any better, Lee told reporters during a visit to a local training and jobs placement centre.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Monday that he reshuffled his cabinet last week as part of a long process of self-renewal for the island state's political system.

Lee told reporters that Singapore has yet to fully assemble the core of its new generation of leaders and it was a critical now to identify, gather and prepare more people to take the reins of power in the city-state to assure Singapore's long-term future, according to a Channel News Asia report,

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday named Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean as his new deputy, saying the appointment was part of a cabinet reshuffle aimed at renewing leadership and preparing younger office holders for broader responsibilities.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in an TV interview late Friday that there is a need for a rebalancing in the world economy, which could mean a shift away from Asia's current export-driven model.

"There will have to be a global rebalancing because we cannot expect the Americans to be consumers of things made all over the world. And the rest of the world as savers lending money to the US to buy things from you," Lee said in an interview with CNBC television.

Singapore - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the city-state has to prepare for hard times and some years of lower economic growth in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, local media reported Monday.

Lee said it was unlikely that things would return anytime soon to what they were during the boom years from 2004-07, when Singapore's annual economic growth reached an average of 8 per cent, the Straits Times newspaper reported.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long said the city-state's financial system must remain open to the world although the presence of foreign banks poses potential risks in the current economic downturn.

"While we take reasonable safeguards, we must stay open to the world," Lee said Thursday night at a dinner to celebrate Standard Chartered Bank's 150th anniversary in Singapore. "Walling ourselves in does not mean that we would be safe; it just means we will starve."

Singapore  - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has assured Singaporeans that his government would help the needy tackle the economic crisis, media reports said Monday.

"We will make sure that everyone who needs help will get help, and everyone who makes the effort to help himself and his family, we will make sure he is all right," Lee said Sunday night at a Chinese New Year dinner in his ward in Ang Mo Kio.

Singapore - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Wednesday congratulated Abhisit Vejjajiva on being appointed Thailand's new prime minister, and urged the need to discuss the global financial crisis at the upcoming summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"There is much that we need to discuss at the ASEAN summit, particularly given the financial crisis that has affected the world. I am heartened that you have said that you favour an early summit," said Lee in a congratulatory letter.

Singapore  - Singaporean President SR Nathan and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will take a 19 per cent salary cut next year, leading a civil-service-wide downward salary adjustment to offset the impact of the global financial crisis, local media reports said Tuesday.

The president and prime minister would earn 3.14 million Singapore dollars (2.07 million US dollars ) and 3.04 million Singapore dollars (2 million US dollars) with the cuts in
2009.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the President-elect Barack Obama win in Tuesday's elections did not mean race was no longer an issue in the United States.

"People were tired, they wanted something different, and Mr Obama represented something different," the Sunday Times quoted Lee as saying.

Obama's victory marked a "historic change" for America, he said during a community dialogue on Saturday.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long Wednesday congratulated Barak Obama on being elected the 44th president of the United States.

Citing the challenges ahead, Lee made a case to president-elect Obama for the importance of South-East Asia to the United States.

"The US has many friends and many interests in this region, which is happily not a problem region for the US," said Lee.

"We can keep it that way. An ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) with strong ties to the US will help to keep the peace in the Asia-Pacific," he said.