Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging bilateral talks with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong, focussing on areas such as advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalisation and healthcare & medicine, and said that India aimed to create multiple `Singapores’ within itself.
“Singapore is not merely a partner country; it serves as an inspiration for every developing nation. We also aim to create multiple ‘Singapores’ within India. I am pleased that we are collaborating towards this goal. The ministerial roundtable we have established is a path-breaking mechanism,” Modi said during his talks with Wong in Singapore on Thursday.
Collaborative initiatives have been identified in areas such as skilling, digitalisation, mobility, advanced manufacturing, semiconductors and AI, healthcare, sustainability and cybersecurity, the Indian PM said.
Modi, who concluded his two-day visit to the country on Thursday, also met Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and interacted with the chiefs of top businesses such as Temasek Holdings, DBS Group, Singapore Airlines, GIC Pvt Ltd, SingTel and Changi Airport Group. “Over the past 10 years, our trade has more than doubled. Mutual investment has increased almost three-fold to cross $150 billion. Singapore was the first country with which we launched the UPI Person-to-Person payment facility,” Modi said during his meeting with Wong.
Elevating ties
The two leaders agreed to elevate bilateral ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership” which India hopes would also give a major boost to its Act East Policy.
“They also reviewed existing cooperation in the fields of defence and security, maritime domain awareness, education, AI, Fintech, new technology domains, science and technology and knowledge partnership. The two leaders called for strengthening connectivity between the countries to enhance economic and people-to-people ties. They also called for acceleration in green corridor projects,” according to a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Both leaders witnessed exchange of MoUs for cooperation in semiconductors, digital technologies, skill development and healthcare, which were the outcomes of the deliberations during the two rounds of India-Singapore Ministerial roundtables held so far.
Modi and Wong called for accelerated action under the pillars of cooperation identified during the Ministerial roundtables — advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalisation, healthcare & medicine, skills development and sustainability.
In his meeting with businesses, the Prime Minister acknowledged the role played by the Singaporean industry leaders in strengthening bilateral relations and promoting economic cooperation between India and Singapore. Modi announced the setting up of an ‘Invest India’ office in Singapore to further facilitate their collaboration with India, per the statement.
The PM said the elevation of India-Singapore ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership would give a major thrust to bilateral economic relations.