Banking on its safe, clean and expatriate-friendly image and offering a variety of local and international schools, Singapore already hosts some 50,000 foreign students and wants to triple their number in 10 to 15 years.

Wealthy families in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, China and India have long been sending their children here for secondary or university education, but Singapore has more ambitious goals.

It is now negotiating with Australian, British and US schools to pick a foreign university which will be allowed to set up a full-blown campus here offering undergraduate studies, in competition with three local universities.

"We aim to have a private university start up within the next two to three years," a spokesman for the Economic Development Board (EDB), the agency tasked with attracting foreign investment in Singapore, told AFP.

In addition to a private foreign university, specialist European schools in such areas as fashion and culinary art are also being considered.

Within the Asia-Pacific region, Australia is the favorite destination of Asians, including thousands of Singaporeans, seeking higher education.

According to IDP Education Australia, a company which promotes Australian education overseas, some 155,000 foreign students were enrolled in Australian universities in the second semester of 2002. Such students generate close to three billion US dollars a year for the economy.

Singapore's EDB estimates that each foreign student here would need to spend some 3,000 to 8,500 dollars a year in living expenses, on top of tuition fees.

Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo has predicted that demand for higher education among the growing middle classes in Asia will increase faster than gross domestic product (GDP) growth.