DPM Heng Swee Keat at the Singapore-India Forum 2024

Professor Tan Tai Yong, Chairman, Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS, 
Mr Kok Ping Soon, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Business Federation,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. I join Tai Yong in welcoming you, especially friends from overseas, to this Singapore-India Forum. Let me also congratulate the Institute of South Asian Studies, the Singapore-India Partnership Foundation and the Singapore Business Federation for convening this inaugural Forum.

As Tai Yong mentioned earlier, the timing of this Forum is fortuitous.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently visiting Singapore – his fifth visit here since he first took office 10 years ago. Last week, we also convened the second India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable that brought together 10 Ministers from both sides covering key portfolios. Let us take the opportunity of this inaugural Forum to review what Singapore and India have done together so far, and to look forward to ‘The Next Phase’.

Looking back, ties between India and Singapore go back centuries, if not millennia.  But two recent moments stand out. The first is 1965, the year Singapore became independent. India was one of the first countries to recognise Singapore’s independence – in fact, just 15 days after we became a republic. And India’s support helped Singapore gain acceptance into important Afro-Asian organisations. For us, being part of platforms like the Non-Aligned Movement enabled us to build ties, develop our networks and build partnerships for development.

The second moment is 1991, the year India liberalised her economy. India introduced major reforms and opened her economy to the world. She also initiated her “Look East” policy to step up her strategic engagement with Southeast Asia. Singapore, and then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, in particular, strongly supported India’s efforts to “Look East”. Mr Goh regarded China and India as two external wings for the Singapore economy. The next decade saw steady growth in business and commercial linkages between Singapore and India. This culminated in the 2005 signing of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement or CECA, which I personally led the negotiations for. CECA was the first such agreement between Singapore and a South Asian country. Today, it is one of Singapore’s network of 27 implemented Free Trade Agreements.

Since CECA was signed, annual bilateral trade has grown by 2.5 times – from S$20 billion in 2005 to S$51.2 billion in 2022. Singapore was also the largest external investor into India in FY2022. These stronger trade and investment flows have strengthened our economies and, importantly, created good jobs for our peoples.

This point is worth emphasising – that the Singapore-India partnership, through the decades, has enabled growth and development on both sides. For governments around the world, one of the chief responsibilities is to promote economic growth and development. This is not an end in and of itself. Achieving growth is a means to uplifting the lives and livelihoods of their peoples and improving the prospects of future generations. 

Collaborating across borders – to leverage complementary strengths and expertise – is critical to growth and development. Autarky leads to a dead end. Collaboration has been, and will continue to be, the story of the Singapore-India partnership. Two economies of vastly different size, scale and history finding ways to work together with common cause, pursue win-win outcomes and improve the lives of our peoples.

This morning, as part of Prime Minister Modi’s visit, he and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will witness the exchange of a number Memoranda of Understanding between our two countries. These aim to deepen cooperation in areas such as digital cooperation, healthcare and medical education, semiconductor supply chains, and education and skills development. These agreements between governments provide the framework and bridges, but it is the private sector and other stakeholders like universities that must take action to initiate new activities and build new connections. So I encourage all of you here to make full use of these, to shape the next chapter of the Singapore-India partnership.

What does the next phase hold for Singapore-India collaborations? How can we shape and steer them towards even more impactful outcomes? Let me share three suggestions.

First, economic growth will remain a work-in-progress – it is never done, and in fact, will become more complex. It is first useful to see the trajectory of the Singapore-India partnership within the context of the wider Asian growth story. The past 30-plus years of globalisation since the end of the Cold War have helped Asia become the epicentre of global growth. Asia’s share of global GDP has grown from around 20% in the 1970s, to around 45% today.

The steady opening of Asian markets, including India’s, coupled with closer economic integration has had tangible impact on the lives of people in the region. In purchasing power parity terms, GDP per capita in the Asia-Pacific grew by almost 7 times between 1990 and 2023. In the same period, GDP per capita in India specifically grew by almost 8 times.

Today, Asia remains an economic bright spot. The region is projected to contribute almost 60% of real global GDP growth this year. The IMF estimates Asia collectively will grow by 4.5% and 4.3% in 2024 and 2025. This will outpace global growth estimates of 3.2% and 3.3% respectively.

But Asia needs to continue to catch up. The per capita GDP of India and most parts of Asia are far below that of advanced economies like the US and Europe. Today, the region accounts for almost 60% of the global population. India’s population alone makes up almost one sixth of the world’s total. So to continue to uplift our people, there is much more that we need to do. Unfortunately, there is now growing pushback against globalisation in some advanced economies. There is anxiety about the loss of jobs from more severe competition arising from globalisation, and the current digital revolution will leave many behind. These are further compounded by rising geopolitical tensions, including wars in Europe and the Middle East, and US-China contestation. Concerns over security are disrupting efficient supply chains across industries, sectors, and borders.

To advance our growth and development, Singapore, India and the rest of Asia must continue to strengthen our economic connectivity and integration, to allow for capital, ideas and talent to find their optimal uses. The significance of CECA lies not just in deepening economic linkages between India and Singapore. Its wider value is in serving as a pathfinder for other agreements to foster closer economic linkages between India and ASEAN, and India and other Asian economies. Indeed, after CECA was signed in 2005, the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement was signed in 2009. Six years later, in 2015, ASEAN and India also signed a Trade in Services Agreement as well as an Investment Agreement.

I see many High Commissioners and Ambassadors here, including many from Southeast Asia. I am sure they will agree with me that there is much more that India and ASEAN can do together. ASEAN has strong economic prospects with over 670 million people, rising urbanisation and good GDP prospects. The digital economy in ASEAN is also one of the fastest-growing globally. And importantly, we are open to working with partners from around the world. India has not yet joined the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP – the world’s largest Free Trade Agreement that includes all 10 ASEAN countries and some others. I hope that India can revisit the merits of joining the RCEP at some time in the future.

I said earlier that the growth path will be more complex going forward. Collectively, as a region, we must build the right capabilities to stimulate growth and unlock new opportunities. This leads to my second observation – that technology will be a decisive advantage to the next phase of partnerships between Singapore and India, and the rest of Asia. The Singapore-India partnership has a good start in this regard. CapitaLand, for example, has a sizeable portfolio in India including IT, business and logistics parks and is working to double its India portfolio in the coming years. Most recently, it inaugurated its International Tech Park Chennai in October 2023.

India’s achievements in recent years have shown how technological innovations can help to leapfrog the development journey. The Aadhaar card, for example, has proven to be a gamechanger in bringing millions of people digitally into the economy, and to benefit from social support schemes. Similarly going forward, we must explore how technologies can be leveraged, including across borders, to improve bilateral and regional connectivity. Singapore and India have been early movers in this domain. In February 2023, our Prime Ministers launched a real-time payments linkage between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface or UPI. This has enabled customers of participating financial institutions in both countries to send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets, providing a safe, simple and cost-effective way of making cross-border fund transfers. And earlier this morning, our two countries also agreed to deepen digital cooperation including in enabling data flows, digital public infrastructure, business-to-business digital linkages, and cybersecurity.  

By working together to promote greater cross-border data flows and interoperability of digital systems, Singapore and India can support businesses from ASEAN and India looking to leverage new growth opportunities in each other’s expanding digital economies.

Technology and innovation will also be critical to overcoming common challenges and shaping a more resilient future. Challenges like climate change, food security, ageing populations, and public health are commonly shared across borders and regions.Facing common challenges, we should share solutions. When we can deploy solutions at scale and bring down the costs, they can benefit everyone. Singapore has committed S$28 billion to strengthening our research, innovation and enterprise or RIE ecosystem between 2021 and 2025. We hope to serve as a Global-Asia node, bringing together partners from around the world – Asia, Europe, the US and others – to co-create new and novel solutions to shared challenges.

Take climate change and sustainability, for example. Around the world, countries have stepped up momentum on their efforts to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Singapore and India have set net-zero emissions targets of 2050 and 2070 respectively. And many other countries globally have set their own targets by, or around, mid-century. With this common challenge, Singapore and India, together with others, can collaborate to advance the decarbonisation of our economies. These include cross-border electricity trade and new energy platforms like renewable energy, green hydrogen and green ammonia. So I hope that in the next phase of the Singapore-India partnership, we can stretch our imagination to chart a better future, and join hands with each other and partners around the world to realise our goals. These are all shared challenges and it makes sense for us to work together.

This brings me to my third and final observation – to navigate the complex growth path ahead and harness the power of technology and innovation for a better future, it is critical to deepen understanding and strengthen trust. At the political level, Singapore’s ties with India are anchored in deep trust and goodwill. This is Prime Minister Modi’s fifth visit here, and we also hosted 5 senior members of the Indian Cabinet just last week. Singapore was also the coordinator for ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations between 2021 and 2024, during which ASEAN-India relations were upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. On the business front, the Singapore Business Federation has worked with partners, like the Confederation of Indian Industry and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, to deepen understanding and build confidence between our respective business communities over the years.

For the next phase, let us also enable the young and rising generations in both Singapore and India to have a better understanding of the opportunities that lie ahead for our partnership. I commend the Singapore India Partnership Foundation, a brainchild of ESM Goh Chok Tong, for your role in deepening people-to-people exchanges. I am happy to hear that the inaugural Students Immersion Programme to India last year, involving students from the Singapore University of Social Sciences, was successful. A second run will start later this month with students from other Singapore universities as well.

Equally important to fulfilling Asia’s growth potential is to deepen understanding and trust among our peoples. This starts with an appreciation of the complexity and diversity across Asia. In Singapore, maintaining social cohesion and turning our diversity – of races, religions and languages – into strength has been a key enabler of our political stability and of economic development. This has been a core pillar of our governance, and fundamental to our value proposition as a Global-Asia node – to be able to connect across cultures and languages and bring people together to do impactful and purposeful work. As Asia looks to unlock creativity and innovation and harness technological advances for future growth, it is important that India and the rest of Asia continue to tap on this diversity and complexity as a source of strength.

Asia is not a homogenous region, but a complex and diverse configuration of nation states. There is much shared history and culture, and yet each country is different in her own way. We need to create more opportunities for peoples in Asia to better appreciate this diversity, and to turn this diversity into strength. 

Before I conclude, let me take a moment to acknowledge ISAS, as well as other think tanks like the East Asia Institute, Middle East Institute, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and the various institutes within the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, for enhancing knowledge about Asia’s diversity and complexity.

ISAS, in particular, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.Over the past two decades, ISAS has deepened understanding of the complexity and opportunities in India as well as the rest of South Asia, among government, businesses, media and the wider public here.

At this inaugural Singapore-India Forum, it is most appropriate for me to express my deepest appreciation to founding ISAS Chairman Ambassador Gopinath Pillai. His wisdom and guidance helped steer ISAS to the heights it has scaled. Gopi, as his friends call him, readily agreed to be the founding Chairman of ISAS when I was tasked to approach him, to lend his insights and wisdom to this ‘start-up’. I was delighted when he agreed. Gopi is unable to join us today but I am happy to see Gopi’s family – Shyamala and Preetha  – here today at this special Forum.  Please convey our appreciation to Gopi!

It is most fitting that ISAS’ Endowment Fund has been renamed the Gopinath Pillai-ISAS Endowment Fund, in honour of Gopi’s many significant contributions. This Endowment Fund will help to build high-quality research on contemporary India and South Asia, nurture outstanding students, and raise international understanding of the region – all near and dear causes to Gopi. And I encourage ISAS’ research faculty to tap on this Fund to further deepen research and scholarship especially on some of the common challenges and opportunities facing Singapore, India and the rest of Asia that I described earlier.

In conclusion, over the years, Singapore and India have built strong foundations for an enduring partnership.  The next phase of the Singapore-India partnership is very promising.  

We are confident that continued bilateral exchanges such as Prime Minister Modi’s visit today will unlock many new opportunities for collaboration that will benefit not only our two countries, but also the wider ASEAN and Asian region and others globally.

In a more contested world, our steady partnership can serve as a beacon, to rally like-minded partners to cooperate for growth and development, to harness technology and innovation, and to deepen trust and appreciation for each other’s diversity.   Let us work together towards a brighter future for all.  I wish you all meaningful and productive conversations. Thank you.