Singapore to announce over $ 4 billion investments in India today

Singapore's deputy prime minister Gan Kim Yong, who is on an India visit, is expected to announce investments worth over $4bn in four projects in the western state of Maharashtra later today.

The minister is on a Mumbai visit, along with Singapore's transport minister Jeffrey Siow, and visited PSA port in Navi Mumbai and will visit JNPA and the Capital Land data centre in Thane.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis joined Singapore's DPM Yong & Transport Min Siow at PSA's new Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal Phase 2. At Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), Shipping Minister Sonowal will be there to jointly launch the Maritime Week.

The visit of the Singapore Deputy Prime Minister comes ahead of the 3rd round of the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) in Delhi on 13th August. The ISMR is a key bilateral platform for ministers from Singapore and India to discuss bilateral cooperation and exchange views on issues of mutual interest.

Wednesday's roundtable will see the participation of Singapore's deputy prime minister and Minister (Trade & Industry) Gan Kim Yong, Home Minister K Shanmugam, Foreign Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo, Science and Technology Minister Dr Tan See Leng, and Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow. They will see Indian counterparts, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, EAM Dr S Jaishankar, Trade Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Railways, and Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw. Minister Sitharaman is leading the talks from the Indian side.

The roundtable will see a number of MoU expected to be signed. The first round of the India-Singapore roundtable took place in Delhi in September 2022, followed by the 2nd round last year in Singapore and 3rd round in India this year.

The roundtable comes ahead of Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's India visit, expected to be in early September. This year marks the 60th year of the establishment of India, Singapore diplomatic ties. In January, the Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam visited India. The Southeast Asian country is a key pillar of India’s Act East Policy, and as part of the 60th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, several commemorative events are planned.

Prime Minister Modi has visited Singapore 5 times since he assumed office in 2014, the last being in 2024, during which a key area of focus was the signing of an MoU on Semiconductor Ecosystem and Skill Development. Singapore is India’s top foreign investor and accounts for about 24% of India’s FDI equity inflows since 2000. Indian investment in Singapore has also grown from S$481 million in 2004 to about S$31.6 billion in 2023.

In February 2023, MAS and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched a real-time payments system linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The linkage allows participating financial institutions to send and receive funds between banks or e-wallets in real time. Singapore has been an active supporter of India’s skills development journey which includes the establishment of five skills centres in India by Singapore’s Institute of Technical Education Services (ITEES).

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