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Opinion Interview
Modi is very focussed on what India needs
Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam during an inetrview with The Hindu. Photo: R. Ragu
The Hindu
Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugam, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, tells The
Hindu in an interview in Chennai that Mr. Modi was focussed in outlining the areas in which India needs
assistance, and spoke about his vision for smart cities, upgrading skills and the development of industrial corridors.
Excerpts:
You have been in the country since Monday and you have met a lot of important people. I would like to
begin by asking what your discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi were about?
The Prime Minister is very focussed, on his viewpoints on what India needs and in what ways people can work with
India. And the primary focus was economic, the upliftment of the people of India. He talked about his vision, the needs,
the smart cities project that he is thinking of, the skills upgrading that is necessary, the other areas in which he wants to
focus on, including the industrial corridors and the topics along these lines.
So with regard to these smart cities did you discuss any specifics about which cities, or are these going
to be the new cities?
We didnt get to that level of cities at this discussion. I have no competence to start discussing that sort of thing because
ultimately these investments are made by the private sector. The role of the government of the two governments is to
try and create that structure, that bridge, the framework that will make it attractive for the private sector on both sides
to combine together and build something for the benefit of the people. And it must make sense for them as
corporations.
So what was important at that meeting was the clear identification by the prime minister of his priorities and my own
point to him that Singapore is a trusted and valued partner of India wants to see India succeeds, and we need to give
shape to these big ideas. And how do we give shape? We have suggested that the way to do it is for a platform to be
setup with some ministers on both sides and senior officials who should be thrashing out first we need to identify
which of these areas because India will have many people who want to invest each of them will have their own areas of
expertise. So which areas can Singapore participate in, where India may need Singapore to want to come in, or India
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may want Singapore to come in and what type of discretion, and what type of legal and fiscal frame work. All that needs
to be thrashed out so we suggested that we do that but to give ourselves some time line so that by the time the two
prime ministers meet some time later this year there will be some concrete outline of what can be achieved.
So you spoke about a platform. What kind of platform is this?
We have platforms with countries were Ministers meet together in a formal setting with a clear mandate for what they
have to do. So the Prime Minister identifies a couple of ministers, on our side we identify a couple of ministers, and
then we identify the relevant agencies which would have the mandate, or whose remit it is to deal with the areas that
the prime ministers outlined and which way I also discussed. We discussed skills upgrading, we discussed hospitality,
we discussed the smart cities project, urban solutions.
So you know there are specific agencies with the remit to deal with regulatory issues, and to push it through. So they
will need to come through and sit together with our people, identify which of them are doable on the Indian side. We
have to identify which of them are doable on the Singapore side, and then we narrow down, you identify specific
projects and we need to talk to the private sectors. So there ar lot of works to be done.
So each of these will be a separate platform or it will be together?
No, it will all be together. And you know, it doesnt mean that every one of them will go through. Thats what I meant by
one has got to work out what is doable by us, may not be doable by others.
Great! And the visit is going to be later this year in November?
Not a visit to direct/bilateral visit but there are a number of places where the two Prime Ministers could meet at
multilateral and the idea is that this gives a time frame for the ideas to be crystallised.
What is the time frame you are looking about?
We are talking about five/six months at least to get an outline.
So just moving on, you met also Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today do be able to give the specific or
draft discussion.
It was pretty much along the same lines. The Chief Minister pointed out that Singapore investments in Tamil Nadu
were significant, but she also pointed out the given this close and strong social and cultural linkages between the two
places Singapore and Tamil Nadu, the economic relationship has a lot more potential. I agreed with that I said there is
a huge amount of international capital which is in Singapore looking for deployment, and international capital will go
to the best places which offer the best returns. And she identified specific areas which are part of her vision:
desalination so as to provide clean drinking water for the people, industrial corridors; she talked about finance, and
infrastructure. So as I said look -- again at the ministerial level it is difficult for me to sit down and either discuss or
commit and equally it is not easy for her to discuss or commit when these are big things. She knows the areas were her
priorities are. I know roughly where we can add some value. But the next step, and she had senior ministers and
cabinet secretaries, particularly in the industrial and financial sector there, and I said look the next step is for officials
to follow up and discuss and she agreed and so that will happen. In addition I suggested that there is a social project,
there is a not for profit organisation called Singapore International Foundation which does good social work in many
parts of the world, and they have done some work on health care in Tamil Nadu and they would like to do a bit more. I
offered that they can touch base with their officials and we can try and do some thing.
They already do something?
They have done something. The idea is to also build the sought of what you might call as moral linkages. We have some
capacity in these fields and we want to try and do some good around the world. And so this is an area that chief
minister was very enthusiastic about it because it dovetails with her own priorities and primary health care. Of course
one is got to understand we are a small place Tamil Nadu itself is a much bigger place than Singapore, so the scale in
which we can do these things will be limited but it can form a useful template for others to pick up and take it further.
I was going come to the size mismatch between Singapore and India...
Well that has not prevented us from being the largest investor in India and China last year.
Thats right, I was going to come exactly to that. We have a double taxation treaty and limitations
benefits clause. We have seen that Singapore is now the largest source of FDI into India I think 25 per
cent and its kind of toppled Mauritius
I dont know Mauritius may still be higher but Mauritius is sui generis, its unique. I mean its money that comes in
because of the special position Mauritius has in terms of tax vis--vis India.
Without relating these two, I am asking if we can be sure that everything that comes into India from
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