India, Singapore ink MoUs on semi-conductors, AI
India and Singapore on Thursday inked two MoUs on cooperation in high-technology, including on semi-conductors producing companies coming to India, besides developing artificial intelligence and latest 5G communication architecture.
Cooperation in semi-conductors and critical and emerging technologies opens a new chapter in bilateral relations, said a statement of the Ministry of External Affairs.
These two MoUs were among the four such agreements signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong.
Modi, who is in Singapore on a two-day visit after concluding his visit to Brunei, said at a meeting with Wong, "We also 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 Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India and the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Singapore signed the ‘India-Singapore Semiconductor Ecosystem Partnership’.
The two nations will cooperate in areas of developing a semi-conductor cluster, cultivation of talent in semi-conductor 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. Mechanisms set under this MoU will facilitate investments of Singapore companies in India.
India’s pitch stems from the fact that Singapore contributes around 10 per cent of global semi-conductor output, 5 per cent of global chip fabrication capacity and 20 per cent of semi-conductor equipment production.
India has noted the fact that the semi-conductor sector contributes to 8 per cent of Singapore’s economic growth. Nine out of the 15 top semiconductor firms have set up shop in Singapore.
Singapore had flourished in 1960s, when US chip makers, looking for lower labour costs, started to offshore parts of their production process to southeast Asia, including Singapore.
Semi-conductor plants in Singapore are currently clustered in four locations spanning 374 hectares. Both Prime Ministers visited a semiconductor manufacturing facility.
Another MoU was signed on ‘cooperation in the field of digital technologies. It will facilitate closer cooperation between India and Singapore in the areas of digital technologies, such as digital public interface like UPI payments, cyber-security, 5G and emerging technologies such as super-computing, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
“This MoU enables cooperation for upskilling and reskilling of workers relating to the digital domain,” an explanatory note said.
The two sides have decided to elevate the relationship to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’. This would also give a major boost to India’s Act East Policy, the Ministry of External Affairs said. The leaders called for further expanding trade and investment flows between the two countries.
On investment, Modi said Singapore with an investment of around USD 160 billion in the Indian economy, is a leading economic partner for India.
They also reviewed existing cooperation in the fields of defence and security, maritime domain awareness, education, AI, fin-tech, new technology domains, science and technology and knowledge partnership.
Modi and Wong discussed the outcome of the 2nd India-Singapore Ministerial Roundtable held in Singapore in August 2024 and called for accelerated action under the pillars of cooperation identified in advanced manufacturing, connectivity, digitalisation, health care and medicine, skills development and sustainability.
This is the fifth official trip of Modi to Singapore. He received an official welcome at the Parliament House on Thursday. Modi, is accompanied by Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and other government officials.