Singapore - Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam Thursday presented a 20.5-billion-Singapore-dollar (13.74-billion-US-dollar) budget for financial year 2009, focusing on preserving jobs and supporting businesses in the city state.

He said the budget, which he referred to as a resilience package, would help Singapore through the exceptionally difficult year ahead, but would not help it get out of the economic recession.

However, the budget, for fiscal year April 1, 2009-March 31, 2010, would help avert an even sharper downturn and the more lasting damage to the economy, the minister told parliament.

Singapore

Singapore  - Foreign investment in Singapore is expected to drop by almost half to about 10 billion Singapore dollars (6.66 billion US dollars) this year due to the global credit crunch, according to local news reports on Tuesday.

This year's foreign investment estimate by the Economic Development Board excludes projects that were put off due to the worldwide recession, the reports said, adding that 20 per cent of the projects were postponed and 2 per cent were cancelled outright last year.

Singapore - Singapore's central bank on Monday launched a 200-million-Singapore-dollar (134-million-US-dollar) Islamic bond programme to promote the growth of Islamic finance in the city-state.

The bonds, called sukuk, are the first to be offered in a local currency by a non-Muslim-majority country.

"This sukuk is the sharia-compliant equivalent of Singapore government securities and is of the highest credit standing," said Heng Swee Keat, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, its central bank.

Singapore - Singapore said Monday it had signed with the Czech Republic an open-skies agreement providing full flexibility on air services operated by carriers of both countries.

The pact allows Singapore carriers to operate any number of flights between Singapore and points in the Czech Republic, as well as beyond the Czech Republic to any other city in the world, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore said in a statement.

Carriers from the Czech Republic would also be able to operate any number of flights to and beyond Singapore, it added.

Singapore  - Singapore is considering the use of its national reserves this year to provide a muscular response to the deepening economic recession, especially to help cut business costs and save jobs, according to news reports on Monday.

The city state's Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said this would be the first time ever that the government would dip into the national reserves, considered sacred cows.

It would be to fund the aggressive pain-relief measures in this downturn, Goh said.