Singapore - Singapore Petroleum Company Limited and Eni International B V, equal joint venture partners in ItalSing Petroleum Company Pte Ltd, Wednesday sold a combined 55 per cent stake in ItalSing to Nippon Oil (Asia) Pte Ltd of Japan.

SPC and ENI will each continue to hold 22.5 per cent in ItalSing Petroleum, SPC said in a statement.

Nippon will continue to use the ItalSing facilities to manufacture and blend lube oils for the local and overseas markets.

"With Nippon Oil's global lubricant networks and markets, ENI and SPC look forward to working with Nippon Oil to create and enhance the value of our joint investment in ItalSing," SPC chief executive officer Koh Ban Heng said.

Singapore - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will make an official visit to China from October 22 to 27 in conjunction with his attendance at the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) VII Summit, the government announced Tuesday.

Lee will be accompanied by Mrs Lee, Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo, Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan, Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, members of parliament and senior government officials.

In Beijing, Prime Minister Lee will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, National Standing Committee (NPC) Chairman Wu Bangguo and Vice Premier Li Keqiang, as well as other senior Chinese leaders, said the Singapore Foreign Ministry.

Singapore - Though the international financial system is still under significant stress, Singapore's markets remain stable and its banks face no funding difficulties in the interbank market, parliament was told Monday.

Nevertheless, the government decided last week to provide a guarantee of 150 billion Singapore dollars (101.62 billion US dollars) for deposits of individuals and non-bank customers in Singapore-based banks.

"If Singapore had not introduced a similar guarantee, there was a real risk that depositors would have shifted some of their deposits out of Singapore banks, to banks in other jurisdictions which guarantee deposits," Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said.

Singapore - Singapore's 2009 economic growth could be slower than the estimated 3 per cent originally expected this year, cautioned the city state's former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Goh, now ranked senior minister in the government, was quick to assure that the government was looking at how to help Singaporeans overcome temporary economic hardship next year.

Singapore - Singapore's central bank is investigating accusations of misconduct in the sale of investments packaged by the collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and other financial institutions (FIs) hit by the global financial crisis, news reports said Saturday.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore "confirms that we have been conducting formal inquiries into allegation of breaches of law, inadequate internal controls by the FIs or poor sales practices by their representatives," the authority said in a statement Friday.