Singapore invites Indian Inc

Singapore has approached India's leading trading houses like Tata International, Essar, Hindujas and government-owned companies like State Trading Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, GAIL and SAIL to set up operations there.

The Singapore government-owned agency, International Enterprises (IE), which spearheads efforts to help increase Singapore's bilateral trade, met representatives of various trading houses in India last week.

"We have spoken to a number of Indian companies. They have told us that they will consider the proposal to set up operations in Singapore," Lim Ban HoeDanny, regional director, IE (South Asia, Middle East and Africa) told visiting Indian journalists here.

Danny said India's trading houses could take advantage of Singapore's Global Traders Programme which offered several incentives, including a lower corporate tax rate of 10 per cent against the usual rate of 20 per cent, and cheaper access to bank credit.

The programme has been in existence since the 1980's, but, there are just a few Indian trading houses like MMTC (a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla group) which operate from Singapore. However, several international trading houses like Exxon, Cargill and Shell have operations here.

"The decision for Indian companies to set up operations here has to be a commercial one. A base here will give them access to the Far East," he said, admitting that until now places like Dubai had been more attractive for Indian companies because of their proximity to the US and European markets.

Asked if the recently-concluded Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with India had made it a more attractive destination for Singaporean businesses, Danny said in addition to infrastructure and telecom, Singaporean companies were now keen to invest in sectors like health care, water and waste management.

"Our companies are looking at joint ventures with Indian companies in research and development, management of hospitals and re-development of old hospitals," he said, adding that companies were also undertaking water- and waste-management projects in Mumbai and Kolkata.

The correspondent's visit was sponsored by the Singapore government.