International - India & World

Singapore poised to ride China-India wave, says Prime Minister Lee

Lee Hsien Loong

SINGAPORE: Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong struck a positive note on Saturday when he said that “China and India continue to surge ahead, despite the problems in the United States economy.”

Sensing this as a new opportunity for Singapore, he said the city-state “is well positioned to ride this wave, because of our proximity, both in geography and culture, to the two Asian giants.”

Declaring open the new premises of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI), Mr. Lee portrayed the parallel “surge” of China and India as a defining aspect of the “changing environment” on the global economic scene.

The “growing affluent middle classes” in these countries were now “demanding global standards of living and luxury goods.” The Chamber, founded in 1924, should, in “going forward ... continue to adapt itself” to this changing landscape and “offer value propositions to the business community and Singapore.”

He hailed the existing Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement as “a gold-standard” pact, for the conclusion of which the SICCI had provided “useful inputs.” The Chamber “can be an important agent” in growing the bilateral relationship.

Sounding upbeat about the bilateral trade and the “rapid” surge in investment flows in both directions, he said, “Indian companies are increasingly using Singapore as a base to internationalise their businesses, because of the quality of our infrastructure and the ease of access to multinationals and regional markets.” Noting that more than 3,000 Indian companies had already begun activities here, Mr. Lee said “some like Indian software giant Satyam are even running their Indian operations out of Singapore.”

Calling upon the SICCI to become “a centre for international networking on matters concerning India” in this economic ambience, he said some of the Chamber’s activities were a pointer to the “way Singapore can reinforce its position as a centre of business intelligence on India and a gateway to this rapidly growing [Indian] market.”

He asked the SICCI to help Singapore’s firms “sniff out new opportunities, not just in India, but also other emerging markets like China, the Middle East or Russia.”

Declaring open an Enterprise Development Centre, now set up by the SICCI in association with Singapore’s promotional outfit called SPRING for the benefit of small and medium firms, Mr. Lee praised the Chamber’s leadership and “the spirit of enterprise in the Indian business community.”

Mr. Lee said: “Indian entrepreneurs are bringing innovative products and services to market and blazing new paths in diverse sectors of our [Singapore] economy.

Mr. Vijay Iyengar, Vice-Chairman of the 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.” Radhika Sundaram, co-founder of “a home-grown digital communications provider” and Kavita Thulasidas, the developer of “a distinctive Indian fashion brand” in were also praised by Mr. Lee.

SICCI Chairman M. Rajaram, in his welcome address, said that “the Chamber has plugged Singapore into the worldwide Indian business and professional network.”

A new challenge, in this context, would be the “integration” of the Singapore-based professionals and captains of industry from India into the city-state’s “fabric.” This challenge should be seen under the prism of “opportunity” that the influx of such Indians into Singapore really reflected.

Another key task for the Chamber now was the dissemination of real-time information and analyses on the rising economic activities in India, Mr. Rajaram emphasised.

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

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