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Singapore Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong, will make a two-day state visit to India from tomorrow, to boost the bilateral ties which has seen growing trade and investments.
Accompanied by his wife, Mr Lee will lead a high-level delegation that includes the Speaker of Singapore Parliament, Mr Michael Palmer, Education Minister, Mr Heng Swee Keat, and senior government officials.
“Prime Minister Lee’s visit is very important because it enables the high-level focus of bilateral relationship,” Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, Mr T.C.A. Raghavan, told PTI.
Mr Lee is making the bilateral visit after Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Singapore last November.
“It is very good that we have a return visit immediately thereafter. This gives the high-level political momentum to the bilateral relationship,” Mr Raghavan said.
“We have a multi facetted relationship with Singapore.
"The different aspects of the relationships are trade and economic cooperation, investment, defence, cultural cooperation, education exchanges and of course a very good political relationship.
“All these aspects will be reviewed during Prime Minister Lee’s visit and we expect that some high-level inter-governmental agreements and understanding will also be reached,” he said.
When Dr Singh visited Singapore last year, these aspects were discussed in detail with focus on investments, cooperation in the area of skill training and cultural cooperation. “I think these aspects will remain under focus.
We will see some concrete outcome.”
Cumulative investments
India’s cumulative investment in Singapore is $23 billion from 2000-2012, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India. Likewise, Singapore’s cumulative investment in India is $17 billion for the same 10-year period.
The Indian investors include Tata Group of Companies, Hindustan Computers and Fortis.
“Singapore is a business hub and Indian corporations will use Singapore’s connectivity with South East Asia and East Asia,” he said in comments on reports that Indian investments were increasing through Singapore into the Asian region.
Indian and Singapore economies were progressing well despite the global economic gloom, he pointed out, expecting a 30-40 per cent growth in the 2011-2012 bilateral trade.
Bilateral trade
“The Indian and Singapore bilateral trade for 2011-2012 is expected to reach $23 billion,” said Mr Raghavan, citing the strong growth seen since 2005-2006 when the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) effectively began boosting low-tax free trade dealings.
The bilateral trade was $21.8 billion as of fiscal January 2012, up from $8.7 billion in 2005-2006.
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