Singapore to set up $1B fund to invest in India

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 09 April 2003, 19:30 IST
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The Singapore government is prepared to set up a US $ 1 billion fund to invest in Indian businesses and in IndiaÂ’s infrastructure after the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore comes into force, said Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: He was speaking at a special lunch meeting organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in New Delhi. The CECA had been agreed to a year ago during Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit to Singapore. The CECA would create a Free Trade Area (FTA) between the two countries; an open skies agreement to facilitate unimpeded air links; education and investment promotion, and other steps to integrate Singapore’s economy with India’s. The CECA would also help catalyze more investment by Singapore into India; more investment by India into Singapore to serve the wider ASEAN market; and greater interaction between the businesspeople of the two countries. Singapore should also be the bridge that brings together the two large and fast growing economies of the world-India and China. This was the vision of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore. This bridge would benefit all three countries, and it would come into play when India and Singapore implemented the CECA. The Prime Minister of Singapore, in response to a question said that he hoped to complete the CECA within twelve months. As part of greater people-to-people cooperation, Singapore would launch the Asian Business Fellowship for India. This would sponsor Singaporeans to work as interns in Indian companies or Singapore companies that are based in India. It would offer full-time post graduate programs in prestigious academic institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management. The lunch event saw the launch of the “Bridge Singapore”, an initiative taken by CII to promote greater business cooperation between the two countries. Earlier the Prime Minister, who is on his fourth visit to India said that, according to him, the proliferation of Free Trade Areas between different countries and regions was helping to push for trade liberalization. South East Asia was at the center of many of these trade agreements and he looked forward to an India - ASEAN free trade agreement soon. At the same time, the Prime Minister lamented the slow progress of WTO negotiations under the Doha Round. According to him, this was because the interests of developing countries, especially in agriculture were not being considered. He hoped that all countries, especially the developed countries would show sufficient political will to make a success of the next WTO meeting at Cancun in September. At the same time, it was important for developing countries to also liberalize trade amongst themselves. According to the Prime Minister, India’s economic and trade reforms could inspire other developing countries to liberalize. At the same time, it was important for India to continue to send the right signals, because investors have other options in Asia to look to. Earlier, the President of FICCI, A. C. Muthiah in his welcome address said that it was good to see that India and Singapore were finding many connectivities in knowledge industries like IT, biotechnology, e-commerce, medical diagnostics, and clinical research. According to him, there were many opportunities to collaborate in technical and managerial education. He invited Singapore’s experience in finance to come to India, including through investments by its financial institutions in Indian markets. Infrastructure was another area for doing business together. Delivering the concluding remarks, Ashok Soota, President, CII said that 2003 marked the tenth anniversary of CII’s partnership with Singapore to bring the two countries together. He acknowledged the Prime Minister of Singapore’s commitment to attract Indian talent, especially IT talent to his country. Soota said that it was particularly noteworthy for such a large delegation to come to India despite the war in Iraq and the spread of SARS. He hoped that Singapore would also serve as a larger bridge to ASEAN.