Singapore Deputy Prime Minister visiting India to bolster bilateral economic ties

New Delhi: Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Energy, Trade, and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong is on an India trip from October 13 to 15, with the visit reaffirming the longstanding and multifaceted bilateral relationship between the two countries, according to a Singapore government statement.

Deputy Prime Minister Gan will be in New Delhi on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will participate in the 8th Bloomberg New Economy Forum and speak on a panel on how countries are moving towards self-sufficiency globally. A member of the BNE Advisory Board, he will also meet senior Indian government officials and business leaders on the sidelines of the forum.

He will visit Chennai on October 15. As India's second-largest state economy and a major industrial hub, Tamil Nadu is an important economic partner for Singapore, with Singapore companies active across sectors including manufacturing, infrastructure, renewable energy, real estate and digital services, the statement said.

The Deputy Prime Minister will engage business leaders from Chennai and Singapore. He will also meet ITE Education Services (ITEES), which is implementing the National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) for Advanced Manufacturing, a bilateral project under the Singapore Cooperation Programme.

He will be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry, the Economic Development Board and Enterprise Singapore, the statement added.

The deputy prime minister’s visit comes close on the heels of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s three-day official trip to Singapore last week. On Friday, she met Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and held discussions on ways to further strengthen economic, financial, investment, and business ties between the two countries.

She shared select projects from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) official pipeline and highlighted India’s strong economic fundamentals to encourage greater investment by Singapore-based investors.

PM Wong noted that bilateral cooperation between India and Singapore continues to grow and expressed optimism about India’s growth prospects.

The two leaders also reviewed progress in advancing the outcomes of the 4th India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR), including cooperation in capital markets, payments connectivity and digitalisation, semiconductors, AI and cybersecurity.

Discussions also covered tokenisation of financial assets and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), with Singapore expressing keenness to share its experience in asset tokenisation.

Besides, the two ministers exchanged views on regional and global developments and on strengthening India-ASEAN cooperation, including in the run-up to Singapore’s ASEAN Chairmanship in 2027.

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