Singapore Minister advocates for Bangalore-Singapore collaboration

Bangalore, Apr 10 (UNI) Singapore today pitched greatly for a city centric collaboration between Bangalore and Singapore as the two cities ranked top among knowledge-based cities across the world.

Singapore Minister for Education Tharman Shanmugarathnam, speaking at a luncheon session held by the Confederation of Indian Industry here, said the strong horizontals of Bangalore which boasted of a big talent pool and enterprise coupled with creativity, would make a fine combination for collaboration with Singapore which had strong verticals in services, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors.

Promising a yearly visit to Bangalore by him, to take further the growing relation between the two cities, Mr Shanmugarathnam said both cities were cosmopolitan and enjoyed high depth of diversity.

The real strength for closer cooperation could be the cultural bond between the two cities, he added.

Stating that Singapore could be the gateway for Indian enterprises to make forays into China, ASEAN countries and the Western world, he said that over the next ten years his country would play a strong role in the financial sector, especially the capital market and wanted Indian companies to take full advantage of it.

Quoting the World Economic Forum report issued recently on countries with network readiness, he said Singapore stood third, next only to Denmark and Sweden and was the top Asian nation having network readiness. The brand equity for Singapore was also the tag 'trusted destination'' for business, Intellectual Property Rights protection and people. The laws of the land were implemented in full earnestness and no case would be kept pending beyond 15 months.

Speaking on the occasion, Singapore India Chamber of Commerce and Industry President M Rajaram said the number of Indian companies entering Singapore was growing at a phenomenal rate. At the last count in March the total number of Indian companies operating in Singapore were 2800 as against 1700 in March last year.

UNI