Singapore and India will strengthen their links in
information and communications technologies (ICT) as part of a
broad economic agreement between the two countries.
George Yeo, Singapore's minister for trade and industry, and
Arun Jaitley, India's minister for commerce and industry, signed a
declaration of intent to conclude a comprehensive economic
co-operation agreement (CECA) between the two countries.
The signing follows the completion of a report by a joint study
group (JSG) which detailed the areas where the two countries could
complement one another, ICT being an important sector, according to
Singapore's ministry of trade and industry.
"India is especially strong in software development, and is
moving up the value chain into product development and sectors of
growth such as chip design and embedded systems. Singapore has
strengths in manufacturing, product development, marketing and
branding," the report said.
The report also identified several areas where the countries
complement one another, including:
- disaster recovery/business continuity centres using Singapore's
stable and reliable infrastructure
- business process and IT outsourcing, a high-growth market where
a seamless India-Singapore outsourcing model will prove attractive
to customers
- design, manufacture and distribution of products with embedded
software, which has already borne fruit in the collaboration for
the handheld Simputer personal computer
- embedded software, where Indian expertise in software
development is complemented by Singapore's chip manufacturing
capability
- e-governance, where Singapore's experience in providing online
applications for use internally and to the public can be applied to
the many Indian states seeking to improve the efficiency of
government procedures.
The two countries hope to sign the full agreement within 12 to
18 months.