India seeks Singapore investments to meet infra goals

India on Monday sought investment from Singapore in newly launched National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), under which the government aims to take up infrastructure development projects worth over Rs 102 lakh crore.

During a meeting between Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Singapore Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam, it was decided that both countries will take forward the collaboration on Networked Trade Platform Initiative of Singapore.

Both ministers agreed on intensifying expert-level discussions on this issue and concretise the way forward.

The Networked Trade Platform (NTP) – developed by Singapore Customs and GovTech – is a one-stop trade and logistics ecosystem which supports digitalisation efforts and connects players across the trade value chain – in Singapore and abroad.

"Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman encouraged investors from #Singapore to explore the newly launched National Infrastructure Pipeline and become partners to the big push that Government of #India is envisaging for India’s infrastructure sector," the finance ministry said in a tweet.

Last week, the finance minister unveiled Rs 102 lakh crore of infrastructure projects that will be implemented in the next five years as part of the government's spending push in the infrastructure sector.

These projects are on top of Rs 51 lakh crore spent by the Centre and the states during the last six years. The new pipeline consists of 39 per cent projects each by the Centre and states and the balance by 22 per cent by the private sector.

"FM also expressed satisfaction in the work of the Joint Working Group on Fintech set up between #India and #Singapore and encouraged the Working Group to look into the long-term opportunities which are destined to grow manifold with more digital platforms becoming operational," it said.

"#Singapore's Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies extended Singapore's support for India's G20 Presidency in 2022 and expressed Singapore’s strong desire in partnering with #India to ensure that India hosts a successful G20 Presidency," it said.