Transcript of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong’s post-India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable doorstop interview

I am here in India, basically as a follow up to the ISMR meeting last year, in conjunction with Prime Minister Modi's visit to Singapore. This is the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR). This year, we are having the third round of the ISMR, and that is why I am visiting India to follow up on the second ISMR that was held in Singapore. 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit Mumbai, to visit our PSA container terminal, as well as CapitaLand’s data centre. These are two Singapore investments in India, in Mumbai particularly, and these are significant investments - it creates jobs for India and at the same time, it also creates business opportunities for Singapore investment and Singapore companies. So this is a reflection of the close economic partnership between Singapore and India.

This morning, we held the third round of the India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable, and we reviewed the progress that we have made since the meeting in Singapore last year. We discussed six areas of interest: sustainability, digitalisation, skills development, health and medicine, advanced manufacturing and connectivity. These are the six areas that we discussed between Singapore and India.

I brought with me several ministers. We met our counterparts this morning. We reviewed the progress that we have made in these six areas, and also explored opportunities for us to work closer together, particularly in these six areas. 

First on sustainability – we discussed the possibility of collaboration in green energy and ammonia, in hydrogen, as well as the possibility of collaboration and learning from each other on nuclear energy, and these are the areas that we discussed in terms of sustainability. We also discussed the possibility of Singapore companies’ interest in a sustainability-related industrial park, for example, in the area of Rajasthan, and we indicated our interest. We also discussed how we can take this project to the next step. We also discussed the possibility of completing our negotiation on the Implementation Agreement on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and this will allow cross border carbon credit trading. It is an area of interest to both Singapore and India, and we hope to be able to finish our negotiation as soon as possible, hopefully by the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

On digitalisation, we discussed areas that we can work together, including digital trade and digital payment systems. As you know, the UPI-PayNow collaboration has been ongoing for several years, and we have just expanded the coverage to an additional 13 banks in India - this will expand our coverage to more than 85% of the addressable market in India. We also looked at how we can take this to the next step and to further enhance the payment system. We also looked at the collaboration in terms of digitalisation, how we can work together to facilitate cross border trading. This is an area that is of interest to both parties, and we discussed whether we can set up a sandbox in order for us to pilot some of the ideas in facilitating cross border digital data transfer. We also discussed the collaboration between the two stock exchanges, following the success of the GIFT Connect project, and this will include areas like a dual listing as well as depository receipts. This was our discussion with regard to digitalisation.

With regard to skills development, this is an area of great interest from both India as well as Singapore. We discussed the setting up of a training centre on MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) business, as well as a training centre, particularly on semiconductors. Both these centres will be anchored by private sector industries, so as to make sure that the skills training will be relevant and needed by the industries. We also discussed how Singapore can participate in the setting up of a National Centre of Excellence on skills development. This is an area that Singapore hopes to be able to contribute to India 's upgrading of the skills level of India 's workforce. This is an important area that will benefit both India as well as Singapore companies that are operating in India.

On health and medicine, we discussed various areas of interest, including public health, including collaboration in nurse training so that we are able to meet Singapore's nursing needs. There are several areas that we discussed on how we can work together on health and medicine.

On advanced manufacturing, we discussed the possibility of setting up a semiconductor ecosystem, because several of our Singapore companies are interested in investing in India to take advantage of India 's fast, rapidly growing semiconductor industry, and in order for our Singapore companies to be able to do so, we will have to ensure that the skills in India is able to meet the needs of these investors, and also to make sure that there is an entire semiconductor ecosystem to be able to support the investments of semiconductor industries. This is an area that we have been working with India, and we have conducted several workshops to share experiences and to exchange ideas, as well as B2B engagement between the businesses.

Finally, on connectivity, we discussed how we can strengthen the connectivity between Singapore and India and the rest of the world. We discussed on two particular areas, both in maritime connectivity, as well as aviation. On maritime, we are discussing a Memorandum of Understanding on the Green and Digital Shipping Corridor - this will allow the maritime sector to move towards more sustainable practices, as well as a more digitalised, more flexible and more responsive solutions and routing.

And on aviation, we registered our interest to expand the capacity and the connectivity between India and Singapore. This is very important, because I think this will bring more visitors to India and from India. This will benefit both countries, so we hope to be able to work with India to expand our capacity and connectivity on aviation.

Overall, I think we have had a very good meeting with the Indian ministers and leaders. We also called on the President of India to also extend our congratulations on their 79th Independence Day, in just a couple of days’ time. And also, this is a year that we celebrate the 60th anniversary of India-Singapore diplomatic relations. And therefore, it was a very useful call on the President (of India) to exchange views and how we can take the bilateral relationship to the next level.

Overall, it has been a very useful visit - beyond the meeting with government leaders, we also had the opportunity to meet the business leaders from both countries through the India-Singapore Business Roundtable (ISBR). We welcome many of the ideas and proposals from the businesses that were presented to us over lunch, and both governments will study these proposals in detail to see how we can further facilitate and support business collaboration and partnership between India and Singapore.

Even as we confront the more challenging and more uncertain, more volatile landscape that we are seeing going forward, it is very important for countries who are like-minded to come together, to work together, to see how we can further deepen our collaboration and deepen our integration, so that we can continue to explore opportunities for our businesses and our people. I think we are optimistic that Singapore and India can work towards a stronger partnership going ahead. Thank you. I will be happy to take questions.