ASEAN-India must continue to work together for regional prosperity, says Gan
Singapore will lend strong support to India’s G20 priorities amidst uncertain global landscape, against the backdrop of a multilateral system that is under strain, the City State’s Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong has said.
“We are confident that India will use its G20 leadership to put forth an agenda that is inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented and decisive. Singapore will lend our strong support to India’s G20 priorities,” he told some 900 diplomats and dignitaries at the 74 Republic Day reception held in Singapore by the High Commissioner of India P. Kumaran on 25 Jan 2023.
This year, India is also playing a key role in shaping the global agenda as it assumes the presidency of G20 (from Dec 2022), he added.
“The theme of “One Earth. One Family. One Future” is a call to all to work together on common challenges we face in today’s uncertain global landscape, against the backdrop of a multilateral system that is under strain,” underlined the Minister.
He elaborated on work between India and Singapore beyond the bilateral relationship.
“We also work closely with India through regional forums such as ASEAN. Singapore was honoured to commence our term as Country Coordinator for ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations in 2021.
“Thanks to India’s strong support, we successfully commemorated the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations and celebrated the ASEAN-India Friendship Year in 2022.
“We also established the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, a significant milestone to take our relations to the next level. There is much scope to step up cooperation in emerging sectors, including the digital economy, connectivity and smart cities.
He emphasized, “ASEAN and India must continue to work together to ensure that our region remains open, inclusive and prosperous.”
He also reflected on the progress made in India and Singapore bilateral relations.
Singapore and India enjoy close historical, cultural and people-to-people links that have been developed over centuries.
“Singapore and India collaborate closely in many traditional areas such as defence, trade and culture, and in particular, I am happy to note that economic cooperation between our countries has grown from strength to strength.”
Singapore is one of India’s largest foreign investors. Singapore companies’ investments into India have increased from US$1.3 billion in 2005, to US$6.6 billion in 2020 – a 50-fold increase over just 15 years. There are over 440 Singapore companies operating in India.
Over 8,000 Indian companies also make up the largest foreign corporate contingent in Singapore, spanning diverse clusters, from IT and education to logistics and manufacturing.
“These companies contribute strongly to Singapore’s economic performance and growth,” he underlined.
Even in the face of COVID-19, the economic ties between India and Singapore have continued to grow. Singapore companies have found good partners from India, and have scaled up and diversified their businesses through these partnerships, both within India and beyond.
For example, Singapore company CapitaLand partnered Indian developer Phoenix Group on business parks in Hyderabad.
Indian automobile company TVS Motor partnered Singapore agribusiness and supply chain company Agrocorp International to distribute motorcycles in Myanmar.
“Such partnerships help not just businesses to grow, but also bring our countries closer together,” he said.
“We continue to leverage on these strong foundations and the deep reservoir of strategic trust we share, to explore how we can expand cooperation in new and forward-looking areas.”
He further noted the rapid growth of India’s digital economy which has already facilitated collaboration between the countries on the FinTech front.
Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore and India’s International Financial Services Centres Authority exchanged a FinTech Cooperation Agreement in September 2022 to promote cross-border collaboration in financial services through regulatory sandboxes.
This will also extend to information sharing on non-supervisory related information about innovations in financial services in their respective markets.
“We have also made good progress in linking up Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payment Interface, which will enable faster and lower cost fund transfers between our two countries.
“Given the large volume of remittances between our two countries, this enhanced linkage will bring significant benefits to users in both Singapore and India. We aim to officially launch this linkage very soon,” he said. fiinews.com
