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Singapore has launched a plan to boost business partnerships with India through tech innovations.
Announcing the expansion of the Government's Global Innovation Alliance (GIA) network, Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations S. Iswaran hailed it as a "milestone" in economic cooperation between the two countries.
It is an attempt to connect Singapore's tech start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises to India's technology ecosystem.
"The Indian start-up scene is very vibrant, and Bengaluru accounts for a quarter of the start-ups in India… the talent flow we can engineer through this partnership is immense," Mr Iswaran said on the sidelines of Techsparks, a tech start-up conference in Bengaluru.
India is a significant trading partner of Singapore, with total bilateral trade amounting to $26.4 billion last year. Singapore, whose investments in India have soared in the past decade, became India's largest investor last year.
Much of that investment has been in traditional sectors such as consumer goods and building infrastructure, as well as in property development. The new alliance will be aiming to direct attention to start-ups, especially those in the digital space.
"Internationalisation remains the key driver of growth for Singapore companies," said Mr Peter Ong, chairman of Enterprise Singapore which helps small and medium enterprises in the Republic navigate global markets.
"India's growing e-commerce consumption, drive towards digitisation, and aspiration for infrastructure and urban solutions - not only smart cities but also fiscal infrastructure - are growing areas that Singapore companies can pay heed to," said Mr Ong.
The Straits Times
