Singapore and Myanmar will begin discussions on a bilateral investment treaty and avoidance of double taxation, in a sign of growing economic ties between the two countries.

This move will send a positive signal to investors and boost economic growth, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

Mr Lee made the announcement at a dinner that he hosted for Myanmar state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who is here on an official visit until tomorrow.

Both leaders, in toast speeches at the official dinner in the Istana’s ballroom, talked about bilateral ties.

Mr Lee said Singapore has been a long-standing and steadfast friend of Myanmar, and is confident of Myanmar’s long-term success.

This confidence can be seen in their strong economic ties and growing trade and investment in Myanmar, he added.

Links between the two countries’ people are also strong and growing, and are set to increase with the mutual lifting of visa requirements today.

Singapore is glad to help Myanmar train its officials, and is also happy to share its experience in building and running hawker centres, said Mr Lee, who visited Myanmar in June.

Myanmar is looking to upgrade its wet markets and build a hawker centre in Yangon, and Ms Suu Kyi will visit a hawker centre here tomorrow.

“We are happy to share our experience and persuade our hawkers to divulge some of their secret recipes of chwee kueh, chye tow kueh, chicken rice and laksa,” Mr Lee said with a laugh.

BUSINESS COMMUNITY

Earlier, Ms Suu Kyi said Myanmar is looking to Singapore and the business community to help the country.

“Politics and business cannot be separated, particularly at this time when we are trying to make our country not just united, but prosperous,” she said.

“Unless we can maintain peace, we cannot maintain prosperity. For that, we look to you to advise us, and to make our country vibrant not just politically but economically.”

In her 10-minute speech, she recounted that at the beginning of Singapore’s independence, Singapore’s former minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew had said that in 20 years’ time, Singapore will have caught up with Myanmar.

“I think we have to change that a bit – in 20 years’ time, Myanmar will have overtaken Singapore,” she said with a smile.

“I hope you will help us to do that, because success in one part of the region, means success throughout the region, and we have never found it difficult to engage with Singapore economically.”

She also thanked Singapore for the “informal education that you have provided for many of our people, who have been working here for the last few decades”.

She added that she was struck by the enthusiasm of the Burmese community here, who went to great lengths to cast their vote in Myanmar.

“It was the sense of responsibility that… pushed them to vote. Working in Singapore seems to have given them a sense of responsibility, and the initiative to get what they want for themselves.”

We see it everyday, but don’t really think about it much – Singapore is always in the constant state of change.

It is only when we zoom out to a more macro perspective that the gravity of how much an entire country can change in the span of a short period of time hits us.

Google Earth Timelapse

Since 2013, Google has been releasing timelapses from the satellite views of earth as seen through Google Earth.

Through this, we have had the opportunity to watch the world transform on our screens, all of which have happened while we were growing up, and not knowing what’s happening out in the world.

For the most part, we get to marvel at how fast major cities around the world change and grow throughout the 21st century. Road networks get more complex, bridges are built, and buildings get taller.

This is how much San Francisco has changed in three decades.

Unsurprisingly, the most change tends to come out of Asia. With globalisation as a driving force in modernising the traditional Asian landscape, the tale of backwater villages and towns being turned into mega cities within the last 30 years is a commonly recurring theme.

Here we have a look at how Dalian has transformed.

A Look At Singapore In The Past 22 Years

Unfortunately, Singapore didn’t quite make the cut to be a featured image on Google’s blog post.

But as always, the good thing about Google is that they are not stingy with their maps. On the interactive Google Earth map, you can navigate to any corner of the Earth and watch how the terrain has changed in the last 22 years.

So of course, we turned our sights to Singapore, and this is what we found.

Singapore is a country whose land mass has significantly increased in the last 22 years.

From the island of Pulau Tekong, all the way down the southern shores of Singapore, land reclamation has been profound, and the density of buildings in the country has also increased by a lot.

Look around, though, and you will see that our neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia are pretty much clearing forests all in the name of progress.

This is sadly a common occurrence worldwide, and Google Earth has made it worryingly simple for us to see how the human race has ravaged mother Earth.

Of Climate Change and Deforestation

Looking at how cities change and grow only seeks to deflect the actual problems that we are supposed to deal with in the world.

Our progress has come at a price, and it is one that may soon be irreversible.

Sights like these in Bolivia are very common in developing nations. with entire forests being cleared for the sake of farmland and industrial use.

Popular Science has gone even deeper by seeking out coastal towns and cities on Google Earth and have found that as compared to 22 years ago, the sea levels have been rising, and marshes and swamps are being flooded already.

They also looked at our ice caps, and the findings are quite worrisome, with the glaciers of Alaska showing clear signs of receding.

If you’d like to check out the effects of climate change for yourself, head on over to the Google Earth Engine here, and read up on their blog post while you’re at it.

The owner of Singapore Zam Zam allegedly hired a secret society headman to slash a rival’s face, a court heard.

Zackeer Abbass Khan, 45, the owner of the well-known murtabak restaurant in North Bridge Road, had been having a dispute with a neighbouring murtabak restaurant.

He allegedly paid $2,000 to his business associate, Anwer Ambiya Kadir Maideen, who is purportedly a headman of the Sio Ang Koon secret society.

Anwer then allegedly told his secret society member, Joshua Navindran Surainthiran, to carry out the vicious assault.

It left the victim, Victory Restaurant supervisor Liakath Ali Mohamed Ibrahim, with a permanent scar.

Mr Liakath had a 7cm cut over his right upper lip, which extended to his right cheek, and a part of the cut went through to the inner surface of the lip.

On Tuesday, Joshua, 23, was sentenced to 6½ years’ jail and six strokes of the cane for the slashing with a knife and other crimes.

He pleaded guilty to five charges – one of causing grievous hurt, two of rioting, and one each of disorderly behaviour and using criminal force against a policewoman.

Five other charges were taken into account in sentencing as part of his plea bargain.

Read also: Murtabak war? Slashing incident involves worker from competing restaurant

A district court heard that on Aug 22 last year, Mr Liakath, 52, stood outside Victory to tout for customers. He had previously worked for Zam Zam from 1985 to 2004.

When a policeman came by at about 6pm, Mr Liakath said he was touting for customers because staff from Zam Zam were doing so.

Zam Zam staff Koleth Navas, 29, overheard this and an argument broke out between him and Mr Liakath.

The policeman told them to stop arguing before leaving.

Shortly after, Zackeer allegedly threatened Mr Liakath in Tamil that he would “do him” within a week, the court heard.

Koleth Navas and Zam Zam’s chef supervisor Koleth Abdul Nasir, 41, both also allegedly threatened Mr Liakath.

Zackeer later contacted Anwer, 46, who owns As-Safeera Restaurant at Block 301, Serangoon Avenue 2, the court heard.

Anwer in turn told Joshua that Zackeer had asked for Mr Liakath’s face to be slashed, in return for $2,000.

Joshua got his older brother Joel Girithiran Surainthiran, 24, allegedly also a Sio Ang Koon secret society member, to help him in the slashing.

Joshua also asked his friend Ramge Visvamnathan, 19, to help him act as a lookout.

Joel, Ramge, Zackeer, Anwer, Koleth Navas and Koleth Abdul Nasir have all been charged with engaging in a conspiracy to cause grievous hurt to Mr Liakath and/or criminal intimidation by threatening to hurt Mr Liakath.

The cases for all six are at a pre-trial stage.

This is not Joshua’s first brush with the law.

He was arrested for gang fight in 2013 and also for assaulting two people in Clarke Quay the same year.

Retiree Connie Tan was reading at her home in Sunset Place, Clementi, when she saw lightning strike outside her window.

When she checked a while later, she realised that a room on the third storey of her house was on fire.

She told The New Paper: “I immediately called 999. Then I tried to use a hose to douse the fire. It was spreading very fast.”

While trying to fight the fire, she heard two foreign workers shout: “Madam, come out.”

Mr Marudapillai Jayavelu, 46, and Mr Rengasamy Kabilarasan, 26, who were working on the roof of a house on the opposite side of the road, had climbed over the gate to check if there were people stuck inside the burning house.

They entered the house and evacuated the occupants. None of them was injured in the Nov 10 incident.

Mr Jayavelu and Mr Kabilarasan were awarded the SCDF Public Spiritedness Award yesterday for their selfless act.

When TNP informed Mrs Tan about the award, she said: “I’m grateful to them even though I cannot recognise them because everything happened so fast. I wanted to thank them and give them hongbao that day.”

The award was presented by Madam Michelle Liem, chairman of the Bukit Timah Citizens’ Consultative Committee at a ceremony held at First SCDF Division Headquarters.

Mr Jayavelu said: “I feel very happy to be able to receive this award because it is not something that everyone gets.”

Mr Vince Selvam, 22, director of Starlight Building Maintenance Services, the workers’ employer, said: “We feel very proud of them and we will be taking the two of them out for a nice dinner.”

Colonel Alan Chow, commander of First SCDF Division, said: “This is a commendable act. In times of emergency, we need people like that to come forward and render assistance to others.”

Mr Jayavelu said: “We were not scared of the fire. SCDF had already been alerted then, so we just wanted to check if anyone was hurt.”