India, Singapore agree on enhanced digital tech cooperation
India and Singapore on Thursday inked two MoUs on cooperation in high-technology, including on semiconductor producing companies investing in India and another on developing AI and latest 5G communication architecture.
The cooperation in semiconductors and critical and emerging technologies opens a new chapter in bilateral relations between the two countries, said a statement of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). PM Narendra Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong met today and a joint statement later said: “Both agreed that advanced manufacturing, particularly in developing resilient semiconductor supply chains, can be a new pillar of bilateral cooperation.”
Modi, who is in Singapore on a two-day (September 4-5) visit, said at a meeting with Wong: “We want to create many Singapores in India and I am happy that we are working together in this direction.” He went on to announce that India’s first Thiruvalluvar Cultural Centre would be opened in Singapore. The MoU on ‘India-Singapore Semiconductor Ecosystem Partnership’ speaks about cooperation in developing a semi-conductor cluster, cultivation of talent in semiconductor design and manufacturing.
“Singaporean companies which are part of global semiconductor value chains are keen to invest in India,” an explanatory note on the MoU said. India’s tilt towards the east Asian nation stems from the fact that Singapore contributes around 10 per cent of global semiconductor output, 5 per cent of global chip fabrication capacity and 20 per cent of semiconductor equipment production.
Nine of 15 top global semiconductor firms have set up shop in Singapore and are spread across 374 hectares. Both Prime Ministers visited a semiconductor manufacturing facility later. The other MoU was signed on ‘cooperation in the field of digital technologies’. It facilitates cooperation in digital technologies like UPI payments, cyber security, 5G and emerging technologies like super-computing, quantum computing and AI. The two sides decided to elevate their relationship to ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’.
The joint statement mentioned the maritime territorial dispute in the South China Sea. “Both sides called on all parties to resolve disputes through peaceful means without threat or use of force and exercise self-restraint,” it said. China and five other countries are locked in dispute with overlapping claims in the South China Sea. India and Singapore are not parties in it.