|
Singapore,
India making good progress in free trade talks
By Chua Chin Chye, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE:
Singapore and India are making good progress in their
talks for a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement.
That's according to Singapore's
Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang. Mr Lim said
no timeframe was given to conclude the agreement, but
he hoped to wrap it up as soon as possible.
The Indian finance minister,
Mr Palaniappan Chidambaram, arrived in Singapore on Monday
on a two-day working visit.
Mr Lim said he would use
this opportunity to look at two areas in particular.
Mr Lim said: "The
finance minister announced the road map for the opening
up of the financial institutions in India. We like to
see how Singapore's financial institutions can participate
in that road map. This is something that we like to discuss
with him.
"The second is in
investments. Singapore investors are very keen to participate
in India. We are looking at how we can encourage Singaporean
investors in India, the kind of protection that they can
get, the kind of incentives.
"The Indian government
is coming up with quite a lot of new ideas like export
zones and many new initiatives. We like to see how Singapore
investors can make use of these initiatives to also invest
more aggressively in India." - CAN
|
