Progress on Areas of Collaboration Identified during Inaugural Meeting of India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable
Ministry of Trade and IndustrySpeakers
Summary
This question, raised by Mr Neil Parekh Nimil Rajnikant, concerns progress in the five collaboration areas identified at the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable and the business community’s role in these efforts. Minister of State Mr Alvin Tan reported advancements in digitalisation via the PayNow-UPI linkage and the TradeTrust pilot for digital Bills of Lading, while noting focus areas like health, pharmaceuticals, and green projects. Minister of State Mr Alvin Tan highlighted that chambers of commerce, such as the Singapore Business Federation, are vital for helping companies capitalise on India's rapid economic growth. He noted that these associations recently led business delegations to major investment summits in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu in January 2024. Ongoing discussions continue on increasing food trade and skills development to meet the strategic objectives of the inaugural ministerial meeting.
Transcript
11 Mr Neil Parekh Nimil Rajnikant asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether he can provide an update on the progress made in the five mutually beneficial areas of collaboration that are identified in the first inaugural meeting of the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable in September 2022; and (b) what is the Ministry’s assessment on the role of the business community, in particular the Chambers of Commerce and trade associations, to achieve the desired outcomes laid down at the meeting.
The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr Alvin Tan) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Sir, the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) identified five areas of collaboration during the inaugural meeting held in September 2022. These five areas are food cooperation, health and pharmaceuticals, digitalisation, energy and green projects, and skills development. Since then, the digital payments linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was launched in February 2023. This allows customers of participating financial institutions to send and receive funds through their banks or their e-wallets in real time.
We also facilitated a pilot shipment involving the digital exchanges of Bills of Lading through the TradeTrust framework. The shipment showed that the digitalisation of cross-border trade financing documents can improve the efficiency, the speed and accuracy of information of shipment transactions.
There are also ongoing discussions on other initiatives, such as increasing food trade between India and Singapore.
Sir, India has the world’s fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP) and its rapid economic growth presents many opportunities for Singapore companies. The chambers of commerce and trade associations play a key role in encouraging and helping Singaporean companies and enterprises to do more business in India. For example, the Singapore Business Federation and the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry led business delegations to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit and Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet in January 2024.