Rajaram explores potential business at Singapore Fintech Festival
Business community at GIFT City is growing with two more Japanese banks soon to join some 10 foreign and 16 local banks in the tax-free GIFT City where more than 550 businesses with assets worth US$47 billion have registered and began operations.
“We also want Indian origin funds and businesses that have located in tax-free jurisdictions to return home and be part of the growing GIFT City hub,” said K. Rajaraman, chairman of the International Financial Services Centres Authority.
GIFT City is a free trade zone, where ease of doing business procedures, processes and laws have been benchmark to international standards, to take India into international finance and trade play.
Rajaraman expects more businesses to register at the GIFT City as he continued discussions with potential businesses at the Singapore Fintech Festival held 15-17 Nov 2023 and attended by 650 companies from around the world.
Seventy-eight fund managers with 88 alternative investment funds, 82 funds with corpus of US$90 billion, as well as five insurance companies and two stock exchanges – GIFT CITY Nifty of National Stock Exchange and a bullion exchange are already part of the business community that the Indian government wants to establish and be part of the global financial network.
“We believe a lot of India focus business will certainly work out of GIFT City and a lot of fast growth is seen,” he said, pointing out that 122 aircraft assets have been leased out from the tax-free city.
“We have three electronic trading platforms – international trade finance solutions for bill factoring while there are insurance companies with international joint venture partners,” said Rajaraman.
He is also seeking fintech companies to introduce technologies at GIFT City and help Indian business access capital in cost efficient manner. As it is, Rajaraman sees growth in trade finance and export finance by banks.
A cyber security advisory committee in place advising the finance sector how to adopt cyber security, noting the ever-increasing challenges imposed by hackers from around the world, he said. Fiinews.com
