By IANS
New Delhi : India and Singapore Wednesday launched a CEOs forum comprising top corporate leaders as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee wrapped up a three-day visit to the city state that also saw the establishment of a strategic dialogue between the two countries.
Mukherjee also launched an India Business Forum, an association of 30-odd Indian companies in Singapore, at a function that was attended by leading lights of Singapore and Indian corporate world.
The CEOs forum will be co-chaired by steel magnate Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, from the Indian side and Koh Boon Hwee, chairman of DBS Group Holdings Ltd and DBS Bank Ltd, representing the Singapore side.
"The forum will examine developments in India-Singapore relations consequent to the conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA)," said Mukherjee on the last day of his visit to Singapore. Mukherjee visited Indonesia, a key ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) partner, before coming to Singapore.
"It (the forum) could also suggest specific sectors as focus areas for the near term while making recommendations aimed at enhancing long-term complementarities between India and Singapore," Mukherjee added.
The India-Singapore CEOs Forum will be jointly managed by International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) and Singapore Business Federation (SBF) from Singapore and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) from India.
A day after India and Singapore announced the establishment of strategic dialogue, Mukherjee called on Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and met Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean and discussed a wide array of bilateral and global issues with them.
"Discussions covered bilateral relations, particularly increasing trade after the CECA, India's increasing engagement with ASEAN, cooperation in the fields of national security and defence, evolution of ASEAN and SAARC," external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said.
In his lecture at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, the minister stressed on making Indian diplomacy "more business oriented" and leveraging external environment to achieve faster economic growth in the world in which the global economic weight is gravitating towards the Asia-Pacific region.
"Indian diplomacy has to get more business oriented and the integration of science and technology and other knowledge-based initiatives into our foreign policy goals must be the norm," he stressed while alluding to the sustained nine percent growth of Indian economy for the last three years.
He also outlined the picture of a more confident India as it seeks a bigger role on the global stage and build relationships with important global players like the US, China the European Union and the ASEAN on the basis of win-win outcomes.
India and Singapore, New Delhi's biggest trade partner in the ASEAN, Tuesday agreed to set up a joint ministerial committee to boost bilateral cooperation and announced the establishment of a strategic dialogue forum.
The strategic dialogue forum would be co-chaired by Indian prime minister's special envoy S.K. Lambah and Tommy Koh, Singapore's ambassador-at-large.
Besides meeting his Singapore counterpart George Yeo, Mukherjee Tuesday called on President S.R. Nathan, a Singaporean of Tamil Indian descent and senior minister Goh Chok Tong.
He discussed with them bilateral issues, including political and cultural ties, for expanding economic relations and defence and security issues.