India outpaces China in trade with Singapore

Mumbai, May 27: The Indo-Singapore trade has touched a new peak with the growth rate of Singapore's trade with India outpacing that of China.

This information was revealed by Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) Executive Director Pradeep Menon here yesterday at an interactive meeting of a 45-member Singaporean business delegation.

The meet was organised by Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC) and sponsored by the SICCI and Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI).

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Menon said, ''India is surging, and we in Singapore want to play a part in its growth by contributing our enterprise and capital.'' The trade delegation was the largest ever from the island nation to visit India so far. It had already visited Chennai and Pune and held extensive discussions with businessmen there and was in the metropolis to explore business opportunities in Mumbai, he said.

Members of the delegation representing 52 industries held one-on-one parleys with potential partners in Indian industries for exploring business opportunities.

Mr Menon said that Singapore's trade with India has recently touched nearly US 10 billion dollars, while that with China is about USD 30 billion.

''The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between India and Singapore had indeed laid the foundation for future growth of business partnership between the two countries,'' he added.

Pointing out that foreign investors would come to India readily, if they were able to get quick licences and start the business operations without delay, Mr Menon decried the bureaucratic delays that sometimes put foreign investors off. Citing an example of some impractical provisions of Indian laws, he said the provision that a foreign construction company could take up projects only on a minimum of 100 acre plot was deterring.

''No foreign investor would like to plunge into such mega projects without testing the waters, without trying out smaller real estate projects on a five or ten acre plots,'' he maintained.

''This provision is an enigma to us, because when a foreign construction company builds residential complexes on lease holdings, few Indian buyers are forthcoming as they want to have their houses only on free holding plots. We have urged the Indian government to change this provision to suit the ground reality in the Indian market,'' Mr Menon explained.

He was also critical of the Indian legal provision that foreign investors could take up construction projects only on leased holdings, but not on free holdings.

SCCCI Chairman (General Affairs) Thomas Chua said that contrary to the general impression that SCCCI sought to do business with only China, SCCCI members were now looking for opportunities to expand business with India and other countries in a big way.

''It is to dispel such wrong notion that we have decided to jointly sponsor with SICCI this business mission to India. We will be able to introduce our Indian business partners into the Chinese market,'' he said.

According to him, there were about 1,00,000 small-and-medium enterprises in Singapore and many of them were looking for expanding abroad through joint ventures to countries like India.

''But it is for the Indian government to make it easy for them to come, invest and earn from those projects,'' he averred.

IMC President Nayan Patel said that Singapore was India's most important trading partner among ASEAN countries and also ''India's gateway to ASEAN and China. It is also India's largest export partner and the second largest source of imports from ASEAN.'' Nanik Rupani, past-President, IMC, who also spoke on the occasion said that the IMC could consider holding an ''India Calling'' conference at Singapore again, ''perhaps in one or two years, in the light of India's increasing involvement with ASEAN countries.''

UNI