Singapore calls Indian cos for global networking

Singapore, Nov 15 (UNI) The Singapore government today invited Indian companies to partner in their global expansion moves.

''Indian companies can use Singapore as a platform to network and find partners to expand their global operations,'' Singapore Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Sadasivan said at Global Business Summit which started here today.

Indian companies have invested as much as 30 billion dollars overseas in the last three years, compared with the 33 billion dollar foreign direct investment that have flowed into India in the last three years.

Dr Sadasivan took note of a recent global venture, involving India's Certus Investment Trading, Kuwait's Development Enterprises Holding Company and Singapore's EDB Investment Group to develop a 100 million dollar petrochemical facility in Singapore.

Mr Sadasivan lauded Indian companies' successful mergers and acquisitions globally, including Tata Steel's acquisition of Singapore's NatSteel group in February last year.

Speaking to UNI, Summit Chairman George Abrahham stressed that the Singapore meet was bringing together Indian businessmen to explore the potential of further increasing their investment in India.

''Our aim is to get the Indian diaspora to get international business partners and invest in projects in India, already the world's largest consumer driven market,'' said Mr Abraham, who also chairs the Global Indian Business Network.

The Summit provides an oppurtunity for the Indian community to generate profitable partnerships, highlighting that the meet was for over 20 million Indian disaspora, residing in 136 countries, to network and build partnerships.

The Summit which is held as part of the week-long 'Global Entrepolis @ Singapore' witnessed 100 delegates brainstorming on various issues and exploring new avenues for forming partnerships in the global markets as well as investment in India.

UNI