New Delhi, Delhi, India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Singapore on Thursday afternoon for his three-day-visit and was welcomed by the Indian community with full enthusiasm and warmth. This visit is said to be crucial for the Act East Policy.
"There is a great deal of anticipation and expectations on what Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision is about the Indo-Pacific region," New Delhi's envoy to Singapore, Jawed Ashraf told ANI in an interview.
"We have strong bilateral relationships and a productive, meaningful partnership in the international platform. Singapore is really a springboard, a gateway to South East Asia. It is also a very important defence partner of India. We have the longest running uninterrupted naval exercises and we train together every year, across the three wings of the armed forces," said Ashraf.
The four pillars of the India-Singapore partnership are strategic, economic, innovation and technology, human and cultural links, he added.
India and Singapore are also working in areas like humanitarian assistance in disaster relief, keeping the seas safe, and boosting tourism.
The Prime Minister would be joining a wide range of programmes during this visit. Foreign Minister Raveesh Kumar said that other than meeting the big leadership of Singapore, PM Modi would also deliver keynote address at the 18th Shangri-La Dialogue.
Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit the Indian Heritage Centre in Little India, where he will launch a permanent platform to bring Indian artisans, craftsmen to showcase their crafts to support rural livelihood. Furthermore, he will be launching schemes like Bheem, RuPay, which is a new Domestic Card Payment Scheme, to take Digital India to a new level.
Eight agreements in collaboration with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) would be signed for higher education, technology and research work during the Prime Minister's visit.
PM Modi is set to visit India-Singapore Enterprise and Innovation exhibitions at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre today which will address topics related to social impact - how can they work towards making changes in health, education, water and agriculture.
After which he will be attending a business and community event with nearly 5,000 people in attendance.
On Friday, he is scheduled to visit the Arjuna's Chariot and the Istiqal Mosque. He will then go to the Indian Heritage Centre, where he is expected to launch a platform to bring Indian artisans and craftsmen to showcase their work to support rural livelihood.
Finally, he will be visiting the Changi Naval Base, where he will be interacting with the naval officers and sailors.
Meanwhile, a MoU between Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Singapore was signed on Wednesday, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's arrival in the country on a three-day visit.
Singapore startups can now gain faster entry to India's vibrant startup ecosystem to form partnerships and co-innovate with Indian startups, said ESG in a statement yesterday.
As a start, TiE Singapore will be running a startup mission in July with 10 Singapore startups to meet with Indian startups, corporates, mentors and investors to partner and co-innovate solutions in fintech, e-services and deeptech.
The Indian community accorded a warm welcome to PM @narendramodi in Singapore. The Prime Minister would be joining a wide range of programmes during his Singapore visit. pic.twitter.com/KHz656LWj2
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 31, 2018