The Hindu Business Line : Singapore well positioned to ride India-China wave: Lee

Singapore, March 8 Portraying the existing Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) as a mutually beneficial “gold-standard” pact, the City-State’s Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, on Saturday said his country could “reinforce” itself as a “gateway to this rapidly growing (Indian) market.”

Scanning a wider horizon, Mr Lee saw greater opportunities for the City-State in the empirical reality that “despite the (current) problems in the US economy, China and India continue to surge ahead, with (the) growing affluent middle classes (in these two countries) demanding global standards of living and luxury goods.”

Mr Lee, who was declaring open the new premises of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI), delivered the political punch-line that his country “is well positioned to ride this wave (in India and China), because of our proximity, both in geography and culture, to the two Asian giants.”

Commending SICCI for having helped shape the CECA, he said the Chamber, with its “dynamic leadership”, could remain “an important agent in Singapore’s growing relations with India.” Outlining the CECA positives as of now, he said “bilateral trade has taken off” and two-way investment flows were rising, while “more local companies are venturing to India, making Singapore one of the largest investors in India.”

Expressing satisfaction that over 3,000 Indian firms had already set up base here, Mr Lee noted that “some like Indian software giant Satyam are even running their Indian operations out of Singapore.” At the other end of the spectrum, “SICCI can also make itself a centre for international networking on matters concerning India” and help Singapore strengthen itself as “a centre of business intelligence on India.”

Declaring open an Enterprise Development Centre set up by SICCI in association with SPRING Singapore, a promotional outfit, Mr Lee expressed appreciation for the manner in which “Indian entrepreneurs are bringing innovative products and services to market and blazing new paths in diverse sectors of our (Singapore) economy.”

Mr Lee said: “Mr Vijay Iyengar, Vice-Chairman of SICCI, came to Singapore in 1986, set up Agrocorp International a few years later, and grew it into an international commodity-trading house, specialising in the trading of agricultural commodities like rice, wheat, pulses and beans.” Also commended were Ms Radhika Sundaram, “co-founder of Interakt, a home-grown digital communications provider” with global clients, and Ms Kavita Thulasidas, who developed “a distinctive Indian fashion brand” here.

The SICCI Chairman, Mr M. Rajaram, said, in his welcome address, that the Chamber was now seized of the challenge of catalysing the “integration” of Indian professionals and corporate captains into Singapore’s business and social “fabric” upon their choosing this place for their operations.

The Singapore Finance Minister, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and SPRING Singapore Chief Executive, Mr Loh Khum Yean, besides the SICCI Vice-Chairman, Mr Vijay Iyengar, and the SICCI Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Predeep Menon, officiated at several events on the occasion.

More Stories on : Foreign Trade | Economy | Industry Associations

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page