Singapore has set up a facility to analyse data from black boxes installed on passenger planes.

This advance in its capability to conduct air safety investigations was revealed at a meeting of air traffic investigators on August 28, who have gathered in Singapore for the first time.

The work of the investigators in preventing accidents will become even more important as air passenger traffic is expected to grow at about 4 percent globally over the next 20 years.

Transport Minister Raymond Lim has warned that infrastructure and air traffic management systems often lag behind intense growth in the fast-growing aviation markets.

One common theme that emerged from the conference is the need for closer collaboration. This is to allow aviation bodies all over the world to learn from each other's mistakes.

In Singapore, the Air Accident Investigation Bureau was set up in 2002 after the SilkAir MI185 and SQ006 crashes.

The Bureau looks into an average of one incident every two months, such as the recent clipping of SIA plane wings. And there are plans to do more.

Mr Lim said: "On the part of Singapore, we are continually striving to contribute to such cooperation initiatives. For one, the Air Accident Investigation Bureau of Singapore, or AAIB for short, has recently set up a flight recorder readout facility to download and analyze data from the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

"Our AAIB is more than happy to offer to other organisations the use of its flight recorder readout facility as this is one of the most important areas of aircraft investigation procedure. In addition, AAIB has also assisted several regional countries in their aircraft investigations and in drafting of accident investigation manuals."