India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable Today: Boosting Trade and Investment

27 Aug, 2024

India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable Today: Boosting Trade and Investment

On Monday, four senior Indian ministers will attend the second India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable (ISMR) in Singapore. The delegation includes External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw. Ahead of the ISMR, Piyush Goyal will meet with global business leaders from DBS Bank, Temasek Holdings, OMERS, Keppel Infrastructure, and the Owners Forum to discuss enhancing bilateral trade and investment.

The ISMR, launched in 2022, aims to strengthen bilateral ties between India and Singapore. The first meeting, held in New Delhi in September 2022, focused on sectors like digital connectivity, fintech, green economy, green hydrogen, skill development, and food security. A notable outcome of the inaugural ISMR was the FinTech Cooperation Agreement between Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS) and India’s International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).

Trade and economic relations between the two countries are robust, supported by the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) effective since 2005. Bilateral trade has surged from $6.7 billion in 2004-05 to $35.6 billion in 2023-24. Singapore remains a major source of foreign direct investment (FDI) for India, with $11.77 billion in inflows for 2023-24 and a cumulative total of approximately $159.94 billion from April 2000 to March 2024.