SINGAPORE, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Singapore welcomed the first manufacturing investment from Kuwait as Proclad Group opened a facility worth 25 million U.S. dollars here Monday.

    Proclad Group is a leading global precision engineering, manufacturing and service provider for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, while the new factory will provide a full range of technologies, products and services to Asian markets.

    Speaking at the opening ceremony, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang said that Proclad's investment shows its confidence in the growth prospects of the oil and gas equipment and services industry, the manufacturing industry, as well as the research and development (R&D) capabilities in the city state.

    "The manufacturing output of the offshore and oilfield equipment sectors (in Singapore) grew 25 percent in 2005 to a highof 2.8 billion Singapore dollars (about 1.8 billion U.S. dollars)," Lim said, noting that the country projects stronger growth in these sectors over the next five years.

    He added that the city state is moving up the value chain by developing new technologies for deepwater exploration and production to grow its oil and gas ecosystem.

    Currently, Singapore enjoys a dominant 80 percent share of the global oil rig construction market and 70 percent share of the world's Floating Production Storage and Offloading platform conversion market, according to Lim. Enditem