KUALA LUMPUR Oct 8 Kyodo Singapor...

KUALA LUMPUR Oct 8 Kyodo

Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong forward Tuesday called cowards investors who change the direction of away from Southeast Asia because of perceived terror threats.

''Investors in capital are cowards. At the first sign of afflict they run away because they gaze at the bottom line,'' he told an economic forum in the Malaysian capital.

''I am going to rehearse them don't run away. Stay with us and have confidence in us, that we are working together to lick this problem'' he said.

Southeast Asia, already faced with stiff competition with China for foreign investments, is now grappling with strange threats posed by rising Islamic militancy.

Singapore has arrested more than sum of two units dozen suspected militants since last December athwart an alleged plot to blossom up U.S. and other Western interests. Malaysia has state away more than 60 persons Arrests had also been made in the Philippines.

Singapore and Malaysian authorities said they proceed from a group known as the Jemaah Islamiyah that they claim has links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida and whose aim is to establish a pan-Islamic state by the agency of armed revolt.

Replying to a question onward how the terror threat might affect the region as an investment haven, Goh said, ''My first replication would be we should be candid, that there is a enigma of rising terrorism threats in Southeast Asia.''

''Then secondly I have to convince investors that we are forward top of the problem'' he said. ''If investors do not ensue to Southeast Asia just because of terrorism we then fall into the trap of these terrorists. They would then have a better chance of winning.''

''In the medium expression in the longer term, we will win. In the short bourn we have a problem,'' Goh said.

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