New Delhi (TIP)- India and Singapore on Thursday elevated their ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” and inked four MoUs, including one on cooperation in the semiconductor industry, as the prosperous city-state’s companies pledged to invest about USD 60 billion in the next few years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived here from Brunei on a two-day visit, touted Singapore as a model for developing nations and said India wanted to create “several Singapores” of its own during his talks with Premier Lawrence Wong.
“Prime Ministers @narendramodi and @LawrenceWongST held productive talks today. They deliberated on ways to further deepen India-Singapore partnership across key sectors including technology, healthcare, trade, skilling, and more,” the prime minister’s office said in a post on X.
Later, PM Modi held a roundtable with top business leaders and CEOs in Singapore, where he talked about ways to deepen economic linkages. Highlighting the reforms underway in India, which will encourage investment and innovation, PM Modi invited Singaporean business leaders to look at investment opportunities in India in sectors like aviation, energy, and skill development.
At the roundtable with business leaders, Singapore companies committed an investment of around USD 60 billion (over Es 5 lakh crore) in the next few years, officials said. “Collaborative initiatives have been identified in areas such as skilling, digitalisation, mobility, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and AI, healthcare, sustainability and cybersecurity,” PM Modi said during his meeting with Lawrence Wong.
Describing Singapore as an “important facilitator” of India’s Act East policy, PM Modi said, “Our strategic partnership is completing a decade. Over the past 10 years, our trade has more than doubled. Mutual investment has increased almost threefold to cross USD 150 billion. Singapore was the first country with which we launched the UPI Person-to-Person payment facility.” Noting that in the past ten years, 17 satellites of Singapore have been launched from Indian soil, PM Modi said bilateral cooperation has gained momentum from skilling to the defence sector.
“I am pleased that today, we are together elevating our relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” he said. Both leaders witnessed the exchange of MoUs for cooperation in semiconductors, digital technologies, skill development and healthcare. These are the outcomes of the deliberations during the two rounds of India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtables held so far. Prime Minister Modi also announced the setting up of an Invest India office in Singapore, which will be a handholding office for investors in Singapore in various areas identified in the six pillars.